Notwithstanding this prejudice, which survived vigorously for many centuries, the regular number of teeth was not unknown at the time of Hippocrates. This is to be perceived from a brief treatise of the Hippocratic collection, entitled De hominis structura, wherein is written:
“The teeth, together with the molars, are thirty-two.”
Among the many and many counsels of practical value registered in the works of Hippocrates, the following deserves special mention:
“When a person has an ulcer of long duration on the margin of the tongue, one should examine the teeth on that side, to see if some one of them does not, by chance, present a sharp point.”[88]
In fact, it not infrequently occurs that a lingual ulcer deriving from irritation produced by a broken or sharp tooth assumes a malignant aspect that causes it to be mistaken for a cancerous ulcer, and medical men may even be so far misled as to advise the extreme remedy of amputation of the tongue. If, however, the consulting surgeon has some experience, he will not neglect in the first place to examine accurately the state of the patient’s teeth; it then mostly happens that after the removal of the offending tooth a complete cure is obtained in a brief space of time. How much anxiety would not such poor sufferers be spared if physicians in general were acquainted with the counsel given by Hippocrates twenty-four centuries ago!
In speaking of fracture of the lower jaw, Hippocrates recommends binding the teeth next to the lesion together. He distinguishes between the complete and the incomplete fracture; he then speaks separately of the fracture of the symphysis. Treating of the incomplete fracture, he says:
“If the teeth in proximity of the lesion be shaken, one ought, after having reduced the fracture, to bind them one to the other, until the consolidation of the bone, using preferably gold wire for the purpose; but if this be wanting, linen thread can be used instead, and not only ought the two teeth next to the site of the fracture to be bound, but several of the others besides.”[89]
Two Greek appliances existing in the Archæological Museum of Athens.