A system of dental surgery / by Sir John Tomes.

  • John Tomes
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of dental surgery / by Sir John Tomes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    130/808 page 114
    with cases of supernumerary Avisdom-teeth (Trans. Odont. Soo., 1876). A single phrase will suffice to describe the treatment of cases in which supernumerary teetli make tlieir appearance. Tliey should be extracted as soon as tlieir character is clearly established. Instances may, liowever, occasionally present tliemselves to tlie practitioner, in wliich a supernumerary tooth may be retained witli advantage; but tliese will, for the most part, be confined to those cases in which, from neglect, the whole of the teeth have been allowed to remain until all chance of the normal tooth coming into its proper position on the removal of the intruder is lost. In the case shown in Fig. 107, the central incisor would have probably occupied the usual place, had the supernume- rary tooth been removed on its first appearance through the gum; but had its extraction been performed after the com- pletion both of itself and of the dis])laced central tooth, no advantage would have been gained by the operation. The position of the central incisor having been unalterably determined, the space left by the extraction of the intruder would have remained unoccupied. Under the head of irregularity in the number of the per- manent teeth, those cases in which the dental series is more or less defective j'ct remain to be considered. Instances have been cited of a total absence of the perma- nent teeth ('). One or two such cases have been described to me by gentlemen who have examined the subjects for themselves. In my own practice, however, 1 have failed to meet with an individual who from the first was ])erfectly destitute of permanent teeth. The nearest ap]iroach to the edentate condition which has in any way come under my own observation, is exhibited in two casts taken by Mr. (') In tlic l\[uscuni of the Oilonlological Society avo several models of cases in wliicli tlic teetli were dolicient, and allusion lias already licen made to the suliject in discussing the origin of various almormalities (page 103).
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