A treatise on the disorders and deformities of the teeth and gums, explaining the most rational methods of treating their diseases. Illustrated with cases and experiments / by Thomas Berdmore.

  • Berdmore, Thomas, 1740-1785.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the disorders and deformities of the teeth and gums, explaining the most rational methods of treating their diseases. Illustrated with cases and experiments / by Thomas Berdmore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/88 (page 17)
    IT to take place, in consequence of catching cold, are apt to generate obstructions and inflammation; and the tender parts which are most exposed to the influence of external air, generally suffer first. Hence, heaviness of the head, inflammation of the pituitary mem¬ brane, irritation and increased action of its glands, &c. hence, also, an uncommon tension and repletion of the vessels of the gums, periosteum, teeth, and neighboring glands, the increased flow of the saliva, and the sensation of pain on these occasions. But those who have catched cold are not the only people that are subject to this disorder; for the same general causes, which produce extraordinary repletion and irritability in other parts, produce them here also; and it is observable that women who are not regular, and also women with child, are remarkably sub¬ ject to a tooth-ache of this kind, for reasons easily deducible from what has been said above. This sort of tooth-ache is distinguished from others, by observing that some of the general causes which we have just now men¬ tioned have preceded; that a sense of fullness in the gums, and an uneasiness about the sockets of several teeth, have been suc¬ ceeded by an uncommon flow of saliva, and a swelling of the gums, extending itself more or less to the muscles of the cheek and face, on the affected side ; and lastly, that the pain is not confined so much to one tooth, as happens in other cases; or if it be that the tooth so affected appears perfectly sound. This tooth-ache is extremely common in the wfinter season, and the barbers are indebted to it, beyond all others, for the plen¬ tiful supply of beautiful sound teeth, which it furnishes to ornament their windows and signs withal. For the people, distracted with pain, run to the first barber-dentist’s shop that presents itself; and the operator instantly applies the universal cure, the instrument, without wasting time with observations and questions. If this absurd practice were only attended with the loss of a sound tooth, it would not, perhaps, in the opinion of some people, deserve to be considered in a serious light; but that is not all. The extraction of a sound tooth, whilst the gums and periosteum are swelled and inflamed, is not performed without tearing and wounding them in such a manner as increases the evil, renews and exasperates the irritability, disposes the parts to inflammation, and uncovers the roots of the neighboring teeth, when they are most susceptible of pain, obstruction, and decay; and hence it appears that the loss of the neighboring teeth, which so constantly follows the extraction of a sound one, in defluxions, is occasioned by the operation, and not by any contagion, or communication of putrid matter, as pretended on these occasions. The common method also of giving acrid, aromatic substances 3