The essentials of bandaging /

by Berkeley Hill

Fig. 74.—Belloc’s Sound, for drawing a thread from the mouth along the nares.

Belloc’s Sound.—Fig. 74 is a curved silver cannula like a female catheter, furnished with a long spring stylet, that arches round in a circle when thrust out of the cannula, and has a hole at the end to carry a thread. The long stylet can be unscrewed into two parts, when not in use. The figure represents the instrument with the stylet ready for protrusion, and the same arching forwards after it is protruded.

The cannula is passed along the nares till the end reaches the pharynx, then the stylet is protruded and arches forward till it reaches the teeth, when a thread is passed through the hole, and the stylet being withdrawn, the thread is carried with it into the pharynx and through the nostril, where it can be used to draw the plug into its place at the posterior nares.

Tooth Drawing.—A surgeon is frequently required to draw a tooth on emergency, and should be provided with instruments (see fig. 75). Seven pairs of forceps and an elevator are sufficient for all he is likely to deal with. They are differently shaped for the different teeth, which vary much at the neck, the part grasped in the forceps.

Fig. 75.—Tooth Forceps.

For the operation the patient should be seated in a high-backed chair; the surgeon stands at his right side, holds the jaw with his left hand, while with the right he thrusts the beaks of the forceps between the gum and the tooth on its lingual and buccal aspects; having reached the neck, he holds the tooth firmly, pushing it inwards and outwards with a rotary motion of the wrist (except for the molar teeth). Sudden tugs break the tooth and leave the fang behind; when loosened by rotation and lateral motion, the forceps readily lift the tooth out of its socket.

For the upper incisors the beaks of the forceps are straight, slightly hollowed inside, to give them hold of the teeth, and have crescentic edges (see fig. 76).

The upper incisors and canines can be drawn by the same pair, as the shape of these teeth at the neck varies to a small extent.