Brunner prefers gold for fillings to any other substance whatever.
J. G. Pasch, whose name we have already mentioned, relates the case of a young maidservant becoming suddenly affected with deafness, and who recovered her hearing completely on the eruption of one of her wisdom teeth. From a passage of this author’s we learn that at that time many had recourse to the crushing of the infra-orbital nerve as a cure for certain cases of toothache. He, however, decidedly rejects such a remedy, as it proves for the most part ineffectual and may, besides, produce very serious consequences. This author carried out many experiments as to the effects of acids on the teeth.[504]
C. A. Gräbner[505] recommends not deceiving children by extracting their teeth unexpectedly, but rather to persuade them of the necessity of the operation; for by deceiving them one loses their confidence, and in many cases inspires them with an invincible aversion to the dentist.
This author invented a so-called “calendar of dentition,” for the purpose of showing at a glance the period of eruption of each of the deciduous and permanent teeth, and as well for noting down the time at which the various teeth are changed, so as to avoid every possible error in this respect. This calendar consists of a figure or diagram representing the two dental arches, with transversal lines that separate the different teeth one from the other, the relative indications being also given.
The observations of this most sensible and conscientious dentist with regard to the extraction of teeth are worthy of note: “The haphazard pulling out of a tooth is an easy enough thing; the only requisites for doing this are impudence and the audacity natural to the half-starved charlatan. But to carry out the extraction of a tooth in such a manner that, whatever be the circumstances of the case, no disgrace may accrue to the operator or damage to the patient, requires serious knowledge, ability, and prudence.”
Rueff relates the case of a man, aged forty years, who, having made use of fumigations of henbane seeds to relieve himself of violent toothache, obtained the desired end, but at the same time lost his virile power. He, however, reacquired his force by the care of the author.[506]
Thomas Berdmore was the dentist of George III of England, and one of the first and most eminent representatives of the dental art in that country. Before him, no one had had the appointment of dentist to the royal family. In the year 1768 he published an excellent work on dentistry,[507] that was translated into various languages and went through many editions; the last of these appeared in Baltimore in the year 1844, that is, seventy-six years after the first English edition—a splendid proof of the worth and fame of this work.
Berdmore contributed to the progress of dentistry in England not only by his writings, but also by imparting theoretical and practical instruction to many medical students desirous of practising dental art as a specialty.[508] One of these was Robert Wooffendale, who went to America in the year 1766, and was the first dentist whose name is there recorded.
Berdmore considers as the principal advantage of the application of single artificial teeth the support they afford to the neighboring ones. Although in no way an impassioned partisan of dental grafting, like his contemporary, the celebrated surgeon Hunter, he, nevertheless, sometimes had recourse to replantation, recognizing the advantages to be derived from this operation, provided it be ably and opportunely carried out; but he was decidedly averse to transplantation. Before definitely inserting a gold filling, Berdmore considers it a good practice to try the tolerance of the tooth with a temporary filling of cement or some other like substance. His experiments as to the action of acids on the teeth are most interesting. He found that nitric acid destroys the enamel in a quarter of an hour; muriatic acid acts almost as rapidly, but with the difference that it also alters the color of the interior parts; sulphuric acid renders the teeth very white, and, even if used for three or four days, only destroys a small portion of the dental substance, but by reason of its action the enamel becomes rough and can be easily scraped away with a knife. Remarkable experiments on this subject were also made later by Kemme.[509]
Pierre Auzebi, a dentist at Lyons, published a treatise on odontology in 1771, which is only remarkable for certain strange ideas that he therein exposes, the entire book being in complete contradiction with the great progress already realized, at that period, in dental science. Auzebi likens the human body to a hydraulic machine, formed by the union of solid and liquid parts. For him the bones are merely folded membranes and the teeth are bones composed of small membranes. The author declares that he is unable to admit the theory of germs in the genesis of the teeth because “these germs, being all in identical conditions as to heat and moisture, ought all to develop at the same time like the grains of corn in a field.” Rather than having their origin from special germs, the teeth, he says, are derived from lymph, this being, according to Auzebi, the fundamental substance from which all the hard parts of the body are generated. A drop of lymph gathered at the bottom of the alveolus hardens and constitutes the first beginning in the formation of the teeth. Beneath this other lymph is gradually collected, which pushes upward and the part of the tooth already formed, surrounds the dental vessels, and thus becomes the root of the tooth. To facilitate dentition he recommends, among other things, rubbing the gums with hard, rough, and angular bodies. He also maintains, as does Brunner, that the milk teeth have no roots, contradicting, in this respect, the opinion of Fauchard, of Bunon, of Bourdet, who decidedly affirm that the deciduous teeth are furnished with roots, precisely the same as the permanent ones. According to him, when it so happens that the milk teeth have roots, they are not shed. To calm toothache, the author recommended a sedative elixir, the aspirating of a few drops of which sufficed to obtain the desired effect.[510]