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

64

THE DENTAL COSMOS.

conformation. So with the instruments intended for the other classes of
teeth; they should be accurately adjusted, embracing as much of the circle
at the cervical portion of the tooth as possible. Failures, either in breaking the tooth or instrument, are many times more attributable to a want
of this nice adjustment than to all other circumstances combined; for it is
evident, that whenever the groove or grooves in the jaw of an instrument
are either too large or small, the instrument must touch and press the
tooth at one or two points only, and this unequal pressure is very liable
to crush the tooth or snap the nibs of the instrument.
Again, the jaws of the instrument should be constructed so that they
will neither strike the tooth too abruptly, rendering it liable to be cut off,
nor too obliquely crushing the crown of the tooth before striking its neck.
By following out this plan in the construction of instruments, six or eight
pairs of forceps will be required for the superior teeth, and nearly the
same number for the inferior set, and quite a number of smaller sizes and
the various styles of elevators for root extractors. A minute description
of these instruments is uncalled for. Forceps are now constructed on
these principles, or at least so attempted; but to say that there is no
room for improvement, would be undoubtedly a misstatement. Eminent
operators have their favorite forms and styles: but these general ideas
should never be violated in their manufacture; and, whenever disregarded,
must increase the probabilities of a failure in the operation.
With these general remarks upon instruments, I pass to notice the
questions: When and how this act is to be performed upon the different
teeth.
That many teeth are extracted, even at the present time, that should
not be, is a fact too patent to be denied. Although the profession has
rapidly advanced within the last decade of years, yet, in certain sections,
there exists still a crying necessity for reform. Teeth that a few years
since were extracted by the wholesale, are now readily restored to health,
and rendered valuable as masticators, or preserved as ornaments to personal beauty.
Viewing the subject from this stand-point, made luminous by the testimony and experience of hundreds of eminent dentists of this and other
countries, we insist that no tooth should be extracted until remedial agencies have been exhausted in vain for its preservation, or decomposition
advanced so far as to render its restoration impossible. Thorough, persevering treatment and fang filling have done much in dental achievements;
and let "excelsior" still be the motto in preserving, rather than in extracting teeth.
Some dentists gain quite an enviable notoriety as expert tooth-pullers.
This quality, in itself, is very desirable, and highly commendable; but
not so when brought into requisition by an indiscriminate slaughter
of all aching teeth, and laying them dripping with gore at this unhal