The Dental organs will be presented in full detail by my colleague, Mr. C. S. Tomes, but I should fail in the one point of my brief sketch, if I did not refer you to the fact that no circle is found exactly corresponding with a second in the articulation of the thirty-two teeth implanted in the maxillary bones. My remarks culminate in this apparently strange contradiction, no two sets of teeth ever describe the same circle at any age. The differences in children are only slight, yet a difference exists; the older the subject, the greater the contrast visible. Yet harmony exists in the lines of the face; once acknowledge this and you will perceive the labour and investigation necessary to make you grasp the subject in its broadest sense.
Take, for instance, a patient at the age of sixty, with edentulous jaws, requesting artificial dentures to be prepared at your hands. For such mechanism to be successful in the restoration of the contour of the face, it will be necessary that it shall harmonise with the features; you must carry your perception backwards to the appearance that this face presented when he had only attained the age of thirty: this will be the art and science expected at your hands.
Not to lengthen this my introductory lecture, by labouring to define the various types of English faces, when the bones are covered with the soft parts, I have selected a few outlines of faces such as a sculptor and painter would study. Cast your eye upward, you will see that each possesses its own characteristic and alterable features. So in life; and if you gentlemen are to be true Dental Surgeons, you must rise to the ideal of artistic mechanics. If I am to benefit you to the full bent of my wishes, you must study nature in all its variety—nature when presented to you as destroyed by premature disease and death, to be restored by your hand to its original conformation. Remember that use must follow beauty, one cannot be dissevered from the other if you would obtain results, complete in power of mastication, speech, durability, and appearance.
To win success in appearance, you must study the irregularities of the natural projection of circle, and the character of circle. If any irregularities are observed, take a model cast of the mouth, so that you can compare the natural organs whilst the artificial are in progress of arrangement; modify these irregularities, but do not efface their existence altogether. The general conformation of the Dental organs and the face must be your special study. The colour of the teeth to be selected must receive at your hands great care: compare the various tints at your disposal, ascertain if a perfect self colour, or a tinted, shaded, or stained tooth is the most pleasing; which will harmonise best with the complexion, producing a natural effect. It will be your object to disguise that the new introductions are foreign bodies, endeavour to make them appear as if they possessed life. Many colours absorb so much light that at night the appearance they present is black and death-like. Avoid such shades, select those that reflect light; in many cases the teeth should be almost transparent. The colour of the hair, the nature of the complexion will guide you in this endeavour; hair and complexion must harmonise. A heavy, wavy head of hair, dark and massive, with bronzed face would indicate a strong shaded tooth, solid in character and non-transparent, yet a colour that will reflect rather than absorb the rays of light. A Saxon face with fair hair will strongly puzzle you at times; the pearl hued, thin and transparent teeth, as a rule, are appropriate for such a face.
When articulating the dentures, every care must be taken and much thought and study bestowed to adjust the depth and height of the superior and inferior dentures to the length and depth, to the thickness or thinness of the lips. Note and estimate the loss of structure by absorption, and supply in proportion to the loss.
The circle and projection as above alluded to will be your special study. Give hours to produce a natural expression. Propose to the patient a short walk in your operating room; if a good corridor is at your disposal, so much the better, use it. By so doing you will ascertain what, if any, old habit of contortion of features is indulged in by the patient; the character of the laugh, if the lips are raised, and how much; at times only the tips of the teeth are manifest, at others the full lip is raised exposing to view the crown of the tooth and the alveolus, even to the lower margin of the meatus of the nose. Arrangements equal to all these expressions must be adopted. The how, will be told you in future lectures.
Then, again, the smile; the smile of a Desdemona and the smile of an Iago! yet how much in a smile! Harmonise your mechanism so that the smile of the patient shall be rendered as natural and full of meaning as art can make it. The movements of the lips and tongue in speech must be as carefully studied; the eloquence of the orator and the no less eloquent prattle of a pretty woman. During the visit of your patient strike out a conversation that shall put him at his ease, and show him at his best; this will aid you in observing what is required to render conversation easy to himself and acceptable to his hearers. Notice that the head is never carried in a perpendicular line with the body; at times it leans to the right or the left, the effect of this inclination is to lengthen in appearance the teeth of the incline. Notice also, many patients have the ungainly habit of twisting the lips out of the natural line of the head and face.
It is by attention to all these details that the results of your work will be noble, your claims to reward great, your satisfaction not less in its kind than that of the sculptor or the painter; whilst they can only charm the happy, it is yours to relieve the suffering, to alleviate pain, and even to prolong life and restore lost beauty.
Special General Meeting of the Midland Counties Branch of the British Dental Association.
A Special General Meeting of the Midland Counties Branch of the British Dental Association, was held on Wednesday, 6th October, in the Memorial Hall, Albert Square, Manchester. The President of the branch, H. Campion, Esq. (Manchester), presided, and there were also present, Messrs. S. Wormald (Treasurer), Stockport; Dr. W. H. Waite (Secretary), Liverpool; W. H. Nicol (Leeds); R. E. Stewart (Liverpool); Dr. D. A. Wormald (Bury); T. Murphy (Bolton); Q. Renshaw (Rochdale); W. H. Ridge (Stafford); T. Mahonie (Sheffield); B. Harding (Manchester); T. C. Parson (Clifton); H. Marsh (Manchester); T. Dilcock (Liverpool); D. Dopson (Liverpool); L. Matheson (Manchester); W. Dykes (Manchester); W. Headridge (Manchester); J. G. Roberts (Liverpool); W. Taylor (Batley); W. Shillinglaw (Birkenhead); J. S. Crapper (Hanley); and R. Rogers (Cheltenham).