Pennsylvania Association of Dental Surgeons. [Volume: 2, Issue: 4, November, 1860, pp. 203-220]

PROCEEDINGS OF DENTAL SOCIETIES.

213

Dr. Buckingham remarked, he had treated several cases requiring obturators, or rather had made the mechanical appliances for them, never
having treated one surgically. He thought it might possibly come within
the province of the dental practitioner to perform the operation of staphylorraphy, but in a large city like Philadelphia there were persons who
devoted their whole time to surgery alone, and as this was an important
surgical operation, not only being difficult to perform, but requiring attention afterwards, at the patient's residence, it would scarcely allow a dentist
who had a full practice to attend to it. He had, however, no objections
to its performance by any dentist who was qualified, and wanted to perform the operation-for his part, he had been satisfied in trying to benefit
those who came to him by making such mechanical appliances as the cases
required.
Of the movable appendages which had been spoken of, that were designed to perform the duties of the velum and uvula, he considered they
could be of very little use, and had never attempted to make them, as
they required either the assistance of the tongue or the muscles against
which they pressed to move them, and in either case the motions obtained
would be very imperfect.
The first case he had anything to do with was that of a gentleman who
had an opening through the hard palate, in the centre of the arch, about
as large as a ten-cent piece. This gentleman had worn an obturator with
a sponge attached to it, made in the following manner: a plate was struck
up to fit the roof of the mouth, and a piece of sponge was sewed upon the
palatine surface to fill the opening, and to hold the plate in its place. Some
of the objections to this obturator were, that the opening became enlarged
from the absorption occasioned by the pressure of the sponge upon the
sides of the cavity; it would also become very offensive, and required
frequent removal. In this case a plate was struck up to fit the mouth,
and attached to the teeth by means of clasps. This simple appliance
answered better than any other that had been made for him.
Case 2 was a gentleman who had an opening into the left antrum, at
the point where the second bicuspid and the first molar had been, but on
the outer surface of the alveolar ridge, or rather where the ridge had
been-for the alveolus was entirely absorbed opposite the opening, which
was about half an inch in length by a quarter in width. The antrum and
nasal bones were diseased, which caused an almost intolerable odor.
He made, for this case, a small obturator to close the opening. This
was left open at the top to allow him to place in it a small portion of
chloride of lime. His intention was to correct, if possible, the offensive
smell, but the patient did not live long enough to give it a fair trial; he
remarked that while any of the chloride of lime remained in the obturator there was no unpleasant smell, but unfortunately for the experiment,
the gentleman had lost nearly all the sense of smell, and, therefore, could
not tell when it had evaporated.