Extraction of Teeth. [Volume: 2, Issue: 2, September, 1860, pp. 62-68]

62

THE DENTAL COSMOS.

The dentist should be governed by the highest moral influences in his
intercourse with patients. Around the clergyman is thrown the sustaining aid of religion, of position, of association; all tending to make him
wary in his walk of life, taking heed lest he fall, and knowing well the
universal opprobrium which would visit any deviation from what is
regarded as his proper path. Around the physician is thrown the barrier
of the patient's home; the universal presence of members of their
families; the existence of constitutional disease and its general concomitants, of weakness, suffering, and distaste of other than absolutely
professional intercourse; while the dentist has not only to combat the
almost total absence of all these, but the absolute presence of every facility
for yielding to temptation, and for inducing others to do so. This state
of things must continue from the nature of our operations. Our patients
must come to our offices; they must come frequently; they must come at
the hours which suit our convenience and the exigencies of the case; they
must, from the length of duration of visits, frequently come alone, or
seriously inconvenience friends or relatives; and, therefore, it becomes
necessary that every confidence may be placed in the proper influence of
association with the practitioner. This subject also should be looked
full in the face; it should have its fair presentation before the community,
and he who passes this ordeal unscathed, should reap a rich reward. I
would that time permitted the introduction of many other points in
regard to dentistry's claims upon its followers, such as attention to cleanliness, methodicity, diligence, the abnegation of all disagreeable habits,
attention to business, etc. etc.; but, hoping that enough has been said to
establish for its proper prosecution a standard of mental, physical, and
moral quality, far above what is usually accorded it, I lay the matter
before you, earnestly soliciting a united, continued, and hearty effort to
place our art upon an eminence in this direction equal to that which it has
at length obtained in the ascent of the rugged hill of science.
EXTRACTION OF TEETH.
BY C. P. FITCH.
[Read before the American Dental Association, Washington, D. C., Aug. 1860.]
THE remarks which I submit for your consideration are a few general
thoughts on the extraction of teeth. That great improvement has marked
this branch of dental surgery, since the revival of the forceps as an instrument for extraction by Mr. Cartwright, an eminent dentist of London,
about the year 1830, and which has now so fully taken the place of the
key of Garengeot, none, perhaps, will feel disposed to question; yet this
operation is of such frequent occurrence that it is very apt to be ranked
among the minor duties of dental practice, and considered of such little