Fig. 26—Pressure at IV will not only anesthetize the third and fourth zones, but frequently also that half of the upper jaw.
Pressure at V with finger covering the median line and counter pressure with the thumb on the outside of the jaw, or even on the lip directly opposite the finger, will usually anesthetize the incisors sufficiently for painless extraction.
Mothers will find this method a safe and certain means of relieving themselves and their children of an immense amount of pain and discomfort. For, while they cannot, of course, hope to possess the technical knowledge enabling them to find and exert pressure upon the nerves themselves, it is a comparatively simple matter for them to rigidly grasp the roots of an aching tooth between their thumb and finger, and temporarily relieve pain—at least until they can take little Alfred or Alice to the dentist.
If this may not seem feasible, they can, by remembering the fingers that correspond with the particular zone it is desired to influence, do much to relieve distressing conditions in that zone until such time as the doctor or dentist can be visited, by squeezing, or by applying rubber bands around the proper fingers.
For example: At a dinner party the other night one of the guests complained of severe pain in the right upper first molar. I told her to squeeze firmly the joint of her second or middle finger, which advice she considered a very ill-timed and pointless joke. Insisting that I was serious and helpfully disposed, she obeyed instructions, and in a very few minutes beamed complete relief from her dental anguish.
Another instance in which toothache was relieved in what might be called an outré manner was reported by Dr. J. F. Roemer of Waukegan, Ill., who operated with a pair of rubber bands upon the aching teeth of a young traveling man. Dr. Roemer writes that this man came to the office with an extremely painful and sensitive condition, chiefly affecting the incisor teeth. As the knight of the leather bag explained it his teeth were so “sore” that he could not eat any solid food whatever, and he didn’t much relish the food he drank. It was impossible for him to close his teeth together without causing great distress. A dentist who had examined the salesman could find nothing wrong with the teeth, from the dental standpoint.
Dr. Roemer, however, examined him in a characteristic zone therapy way. He searched the patient’s fingers with a metal comb to find out what was the matter with his teeth. This search disclosed the presence of “spots” on the insides of the thumb and first finger which were acutely sensitive to pressures from the teeth of the comb.
The diagnosis established, the treatment was simplicity itself. Commencing with light pressures upon these sensitive areas the doctor gradually increased the force applied to the comb, at the same time engaging the owner of the thumb and teeth in conversation relative to his business, and to the political situation—this latter a perennial source of interest-absorbing conversation in the West.
After about ten minutes of this operation the doctor looked up and asked his victim “how the teeth were getting along.” After cautiously testing their sensitiveness by means of various biting pressures, the patient responded that “while they were still a little ‘sore’ the pain had entirely left.”
The doctor then issued instructions as to how to apply rubber bands in order to make the proper pressure, which is to use one-fourth inch bands about two inches in length, bind them around the first joint—counting from the tip—of the thumb and first finger, leave them on until bluish discoloration appeared, then remove, and re-apply after a few hours.