Show dental hygiene ar the road to health by DR R ALLEN GRIFFITH DENTAL PAIN KILLING THE tan HE fear ear of pain Is mans heritage an american dentist reduced that heritage forever by making the first practical use of nitrous oxide lau laughing bang gas as an anesthetic anesthesia really was discovered on december 11 1844 by horace borace wells a dentist of hartford conn when he offered himself as a possible martyr to suffering humanity by nitrous oxide and having a tooth extracted in january 1815 doctor wells took his discovery to boston and operated before the medical college ile he was ridiculed and pronounced a fraud the wise men of boston finin pointed ted the fin linger er of mockery and cried lium humbug bug determined ter mined to break upon the rocks of derision any man from the country who supposed the wise men of the city ridiculous di enough to believe his story dentists in their eagerness to relieve human suffering and pain have tor for years successfully used local anesthetics such ns as cocain and novocain in later years they have developed the use of a combination of nitrous oxide and oxygen the safest general anest anesthetic betic known the death rate from nitrous oxide and oxygen Is estimated at one in a million against one in thirty thousand in ether Denti latest gift to suffering mankind Is conductive anesthesia orl nerve blocking by which the area con trolled strolled by a nerve Is rendered insen 1 sible to pain surgery Is now able to perform major operations such as and amputations imputations by in ejecting the nerve trunks with n novo 0 vo caln caan what would be mans fear and dread of dental and surgical operations without the gra gracious clous sleep of anesthesia abrou through h anesthesia dentistry has given to humanity one of its greatest boons and it Is hard to conceive that in the past few years bills have bave been introduced in some of our state legislatures to prevent dentists from giving anesthetics however it Is only in una with the profound scientific Igno ignorance rancel of politicians the dentist has succeeded in taking the dent out of dentistry where ari an individual suffers from pala pain in his teeth it Is his own fault the modern up to date dentist has so many ways waya of relieving pain that no one need to suffer from their teeth ills his latest and greatest gift to humanity however iq the prevention of systemic disease through the proper care of the teeth proper dental care will not only prevent pain and preserve the teeth but will preserve general health as well 0 0 TEETH AND TONSILS WHEN ado BEN you smile in a mirror what wha do you see do you see a clean healthy mouth and a row of pearls or a neglected neglect ea oral cavity with decaying for teeth the mucous membrane of the mouth Is highly resistant to the invasion of bacteria it if this were not true we would all be in constant trouble from mouth infections for it Is easy too to demonstrate that every mouth in any civilized community contains a great v variety of bacteria most of them of highly virulent strains during the past few years it has been the practice to remove the ton stis but to overlook their source of infection the teeth let us see how the tonsils become infected the substance of healthy tonsils 1 Is composed of small nodules of lymphatic tissues arranged in groups of 12 to 15 crypts and connective tissue blood vessels and a few nerve fibers front from the crypts numerous follicles branch out into the substance of the tonsil by means of irregular channels surrounding each follicle Is a plexus of lymphatic vessels and the whole Is covered by mucous membrane while well protected from the outside yet because of their peculiar construction and the numerous lymphatic plexuses plex uses and crypts they are ideal incubators for microorganisms micro organisms that may once succeed in penetrating the lymph channels the lymphatic vessels of the gums terminate in the sub max maxillary ilary glands the lymphatic vessels leading from fro the plexuses plex uses surrounding the ton silar crypts also pass to the glands it Is there fore readily seen that bacteria may pass almost directly from the gum margins to the tonsils ton sils bacteria passing into the lymph channels may easily pass on to the tonsils and be enormously multiplied both in number and virulence and be passed through the glands to the deep cervical glands and finally on to other parts of tho the body without the surface of the tonsil even being disturbed this Is why the removal of the tonsils ton sils while immediately helpful does not always remove the source of the trouble the same condition still remains and operation after operation frequently succeed each other as the lowered resistance of some other point causes it to become infected if the teeth are properly cared for first and the crypts of the tonsils carefully cleaned out the tonsils may frequently be saved in any event the teeth should be the first consideration for in treating diseases resulting frog from focal infection the original point of infection must be eradicated A 0 western paper union |