“Sometimes,” continues Fauchard, “such violent and obstinate pain arises in a tooth that we are obliged to extract it, although not decayed nor presenting deformity.”
The author combats the old prejudice, that it is not right to draw teeth in cases of pregnant women or of nursing mothers, lest the operation should prove dangerous to the patient or to the fetus, or produce alteration or arrest of the milk secretion. Only the fear arising from this prejudice can, according to the author, cause any of the dreaded contingencies. The dentist ought, therefore, to seek to dissipate the fears of these patients, by persuading them of the innocuous nature of the operation as well as of its short duration, and should represent to them, on the other hand (if the operation be really necessary), the advantages of promptly deciding on it, to avoid the harm and the peril that prolonged suffering and the tortures of sleeplessness might occasion to themselves as well as to the unborn child or to the suckling infant, such as abortion, premature confinement, alteration of the milk, etc.
According to Fauchard, “one should always take the precaution of hiding the instruments from the patient’s sight, especially in the case of extracting a tooth, so as not to terrify him.”
The author then speaks of cases where it is necessary to open the jaws by force;[431] of the instruments to be used; of the mode of employing them; of all the precautions to be observed under such circumstances; of the necessity that may eventually arise of sacrificing some one tooth when the enforced opening of the jaws has been impracticable; of the advisability of sacrificing preferably in such cases one of the premolars in order to damage as little as possible the masticatory function and the appearance of the face; of the instruments best adapted for carrying out this operation; of the danger it presents and of the best mode of avoiding it; finally, of what it is necessary to do in given cases to keep the mouth open, in order to not be obliged to repeat the operation a second time.
The six following chapters of the first volume treat very extensively of the anatomy and physiology of the gums,[432] of gingival diseases and their treatment.[433] The subject is treated in a masterly manner, although these chapters do not offer anything of original importance.
The same may be said of Chapter XXII, in which the author speaks of scorbutic affections and of their treatment.
The chapters we have cited are accompanied by four plates, representing thirteen instruments for use in the treatment of the above diseases.
