Two gum lancets and a trifid lever called “poussoir” (Ambroise Paré).
But let us now return to our subject. After the extraction of a tooth, it is necessary—says Paré—to leave the wound to bleed freely, so that the part may get rid of the morbid humors; then the gums and the alveolus must be pressed, on both sides, with the fingers, to readjust the socket, which will have been widened and sometimes even broken in extracting the tooth. After this, the patient should rinse his mouth with oxycrate; and when the weather is cold and windy, the patient should take care to avoid fluxion in the other teeth.
The following chapter speaks, “de la limosité ou rouillure des dents, et de la manière de les conserver.”
After meals the mouth must be rinsed with water and wine, or with water with a little vinegar added to it, and the teeth cleaned from all residues of food, so that their putrefying may not spoil the teeth and make the breath fetid. An earthy yellowish substance, like rust, often forms on the teeth from want of cleanliness and also when they are not used to masticate; this substance corrodes the teeth, just as rust corrodes iron. It is necessary to remove this substance, by scraping the teeth with small instruments suitable for the purpose, and then the teeth themselves must be rubbed with a little aqua fortis and aqua vitæ mixed together, to take away what the instruments have not been able to remove. In order to preserve the teeth it is necessary, besides, to rub the teeth frequently with appropriate dentifrices. Among these the author mentions simple bread crust, burnt and reduced to powder.
In Chapter III of Book XVII he speaks of artificial teeth. Sometimes, says Paré, by the effect of a blow, the front teeth are lost; this not only constitutes a deformity, but is also the cause of defects of speech. Therefore, after the necessary treatment, when the gums are hardened, the lost teeth must be substituted with artificial ones made out of bone, ivory, or the teeth of the Rohart,[309] which are excellent for this purpose; and the artificial teeth must be tied to the neighboring ones with gold or silver wire.
The palatine obturator with sponge of Ambroise Paré.
Chapter IV of the same book is most important, for palatal obturators are therein spoken of for the first time. “Sometimes a portion of the bone of the palate is destroyed by the shot of an arquebus, or by some other wound or by a syphilitic ulcer (par ulcère de verole), the patients being thereby disabled from properly pronouncing words and from making themselves understood. To repair this defect we have found an expedient through the help and ministry of our art. It consists in the application of an instrument somewhat larger than the palatal perforation; this is made of gold or silver, of about the thickness of a crown (coin), and has the form of a vaulted roof, to which a sponge is attached; when introduced into the aperture, the sponge, absorbing the humidity natural to such parts, will very soon swell up, and thus the instrument is held firm. In this way, words are better pronounced.”
Besides the above instrument, the author gives us the figure of another instrument, sans esponge (without sponge), which, taken altogether, is like a large cuff button. The small part, designed to be introduced into the aperture of the palate, can be made to turn round from below, by means of a small pair of pincers, so as to fix the obturator.