Dental anaesthesia: painless tooth extraction by congelation.

  • Quinton, J. Richard.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dental anaesthesia: painless tooth extraction by congelation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    oesthetic, which will -universally abolish sensational power, without depriving the intellect of its functions. In dentistry, more perhaps than in general sur- gery, the retention of consciousness with sensation locally abolished, has peculiar advantages. It is of very considerable advantage to have the voli- tional power of the patient intact, for keeping the mouth open and the body steady. On the other hand, the j)ower of the mind to create sen- sations, for which extremely nervous patients are notorious, is sometimes a disadvantage, as regards the subject of pain. All local anoesthetics have this drawback in common, that the perfect reten- tion of consciousness allows the mind to be under subjection to a dominant idea. Few psychological phenomena are more curious and interesting than the operancy of the mind upon itself in the creation of sensations, whether of pleasure or of pain. The dominating idea, in the mind of a patient, (espe- cially one who has had a tooth extracted in the ordinary way,) is that of intense suffering. The mind knows the horrid wrench,” and idealizes it, even though it be not present. Pain is thus en- dured by the mind, which has no existence in the body. I have witnessed this mental suffering, in some instances, when the existence of physical suffering was impossible. Occasionally, it has hap- pened that an extremely hyperoesthetic patient,