Practical Hints. [Volume: 2, Issue: 2, September, 1860, pp. 57-58]

THE

DENTAL COS MOS.
NEW SERIES.

VOL. II. PHILADELPHIA, SEPTEMBER, 1860. No. 2.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.
PRACTICAL HINTS.
BY J. D. WHITE.
WE did not expect so soon to allude to irregularities of the teeth-as
there are many other subjects which we have been anxious to refer tobut when daily experience shows that the most censurable, and we may
say wicked, practices are still pursued by those from whom better things
are to be expected, it becomes necessary that some one should keep the
subject before the profession and the community. We refer to the premature extraction of deciduous teeth for apparent irregularities.
It can easily be understood that, in the early history of dentistry,
errors crept into practice, as well as into works on our art, and especially
in relation to the eruption of the teeth and the changes the jaws undergo
at that time, as doubtless the outward signs, and those immediately presenting themselves, only were taken as guides to the practitioner in relation to the treatment of deciduous teeth, instead of considering the relation
the two sets of teeth have to each other during their growth and eruption.
As soon as a deciduous tooth of a child becomes a little loose, the parent
rushes to the dentist to get it extracted, with as much anxiety as though
the life of the little patient depended upon it; and when we decline, as
is usual, it is astonishing to witness the surprise and apparent disappointment on the countenance, since there is no opinion that can possess
a parent that they hold on to with so much tenacity.
We have given our views elsewhere why we do not extract deciduous
eeeth, except under extraordinary circumstances; but the object of the
wesefnt article is to protest against a practice which we hoped had died
especially among those who have been appointed to teach the science
of our art. We allude especially to the premature extraction of the deciduous canine teeth, to give the permanent lateral incisors room.
We never knew a case where such operation was necessary, nor do we
believe it ever exists. The absorption of the deciduous canine root has
VOT. IT.-5