When a babe is born with teeth, they generally drop out. On the other hand, teething, in some children does not commence until they are a year and a half or two years old, and, in rare cases, not until they are three years old. There are cases recorded of adults who have never cut any teeth. An instance of the kind came under my own observation.
Dentition has been known to occur in old age. A case is recorded by M. Carre, in the Gazette Medicale de Paris (Sept 15, 1860), of an old lady, aged eighty-five, who cut several teeth after attaining that age!
59. What is the number of the FIRST set of teeth, and in what order do they generally appear?
The first or temporary set consists of twenty. The first set of teeth are usually cut in pairs. "I may say that nearly invariably the order is—1st, the lower front incissors [cutting teeth], then the upper front, then the upper two lateral incissors, and that not uncommonly a double tooth is cut before the two lower laterals; but at all events the lower laterals come 7th and 8th, and, not 5th and 6th, as nearly all books on the subject testify." [Footnote: Sir Charles Locock in a Letter to the Author.] Then the first grinders, in the lower jaw, afterwards the first upper grinders, then the lower corner-pointed or canine teeth, after which the upper corner or eye-teeth, then the second grinders in the lower jaw, and lastly, the second grinders of the upper jaw. They do not, of course, always appear in this rotation. Nothing is more uncertain than the order of teething. A child seldom cuts his second grinders until after he is two years old. He is, usually, from the time they first appear, two years in cutting the first set of teeth. As a rule, therefore, a child of two years old has sixteen, and one of two years and a half old, twenty teeth.
60. If an infant be feverish or irritable, or otherwise poorly, and if the gums be hot, swollen, and tender, are you an advocate for their being lanced?
Certainly; by doing so he will, in the generality of instances, be almost instantly relieved.
61. But it has been stated that lancing the gums hardens them?
This is a mistake—it has a contrary effect. It is a well-known fact, that a part which has been divided gives way much more readily than one which has not been cut. Again, the tooth is bound down by a tight membrane, which, if not released by lancing, frequently brings on convulsions. If the symptoms be urgent, it may be necessary from time to time to repeat the lancing. It would, of course, be the height of folly to lance the gums unless they be hot and swollen, and unless the tooth, or the teeth, be near at hand. It is not to be considered a panacea for every baby's ill, although, in those cases where the lancing of the gums is indicated, the beneficial effect is sometimes almost magical.
62. How ought the lancing of a child's gums to be performed?
The proper person, of course, to lance his gums is a medical man. But if, perchance, you should be miles away and be out of the reach of one, it would be well for you to know how the operation ought to be performed. Well, then, let him lie on the nurse's lap upon his back, and let the nurse take hold of his hands in order that he may not interfere with the operation.