Foucou, the French dentist, in 1774, made known a compressor invented by him for arresting hemorrhage ensuing on the extraction of teeth. This instrument, which could be used for either jaw, exercised its pressure not only in a vertical direction, but also laterally, and did not give much inconvenience to the patient. Carabelli, who wrote seventy years later, speaks with praise of Foucou’s compressor, which he considers the best instrument of its kind.
Courtois, in his book published in 1775,[515] says that the enamel of the teeth only reaches its perfection of development at twenty to twenty-two years of age, and begins thenceforward to wear away gradually. In speaking of the enamel, he advises avoiding the use of the file as much as possible. This author’s book is interesting for the many important clinical cases it contains.
Willich, in 1778, related a most curious case relating to a woman, aged forty years, who had never had her menstrual function, but had, nevertheless, given birth to two children; the extraction of a tooth was followed by an alveolar hemorrhage that lasted an hour; thenceforward, this hemorrhage recurred regularly each month, for the space of eight years.
Bücking, in 1782, published a Complete Guide to the Extraction of the Teeth,[516] wherein he minutely describes all the instruments, their use, the position of the operator and of the patient, indicating at the same time the instruments best adapted for the extraction of each tooth. He declares himself averse to the practice of subluxation as a means of cure for toothache, a method which, first recommended by the Arab physician Avicenna, and later, in the sixteenth century, by Peter Foreest, had fallen into oblivion for a long time, and was again brought into credit by two celebrated French dentists, Mouton and Bourdet, the latter of whom relates having had recourse to it successfully in not less than six hundred cases.
Notwithstanding the high authority of this illustrious dentist, Bücking does not consider this method of cure advisable, adducing, however, in support of his opinion, arguments of no great value, viz., that teeth after subluxation continue painful for a certain time, and that they always remain in an oblique position. The method in question, which has the effect of breaking the dental nerve, is, in our opinion, practically equivalent to a replantation, or is, in point of fact, a replantation, when the luxation of the tooth is complete. The arguments that Bücking brings forward against it are futile; the first objection, for the most part, does not subsist, and, in any case, the persistence of pain for a short time would be of small importance compared with the great advantage of preserving the tooth; as to the second, it is to be understood of itself that subluxation performed by means of the pelican (the instrument then used for the operation) would cause the tooth to assume an oblique position; but even supposing it did not straighten up of itself, there could not have been any difficulty for the good dentists of that period in forcing the tooth again into normal position and in maintaining it there. The weak side of the operation consisted rather in the fact of its being probably carried out without due consideration of the dangers resulting from the possible alterations of the dental pulp.
At the time of which we are writing many believed that the enamel of the teeth could be regenerated altogether or in part, and that, therefore, it was of no great consequence that it should be worn away by the use of the file or of abrasive dentifrice powders. Thus, for example, the renowned surgeon Theden expressly recommended such powders, as the best adapted for cleaning the teeth and for freeing them from tartar.[517]
Van Wy,[518] the Dutch surgeon, in 1784, related two cases of regeneration of the maxillary bones; other cases of the same kind were related some years later by Percy and Boulet.[519]
Chopart and Desault recommended, in cases of difficult dentition, the excision of the gum in correspondence with the teeth that are to come out, rather than simple incisions.[520]
Antonio Campani.