Critical notes of Mr. Gilbert's operative chair, with external fulcrum, for the extraction of teeth.

  • Gilbert Henry, -1864.
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Critical notes of Mr. Gilbert's operative chair, with external fulcrum, for the extraction of teeth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    patient, but he contends that by its use the suffering is rendered “ quite bearable.” He hopes entirely to banish the “ key” from dental surgery, which terrible-looking instrument has long been the great bugbear of the art. He has shown us, very satisfactorily, that with his chair any species of forceps may be used, at the pleasure of the operator; we be- lieve that Cartwright’s forceps is that which he commonly employs. Pie states to us that he will feel pleasure in showing and explaining the use of his chair to any practitioner, and we can confidently direct at- tention to it as a boon to the profession and the public. “We have had an opportunity of again examining this most inge- nious chair, and consider it a highly meritorious invention. To the dentist and the surgeon it will prove most important while performing their operations. We have already given a description of this instrument, and it is only necessary for us now to say, that it allows of the extrac- tion of teeth in the most scientific and easy manner,—the forceps when introduced into the patient’s mouth, resting on a fulcrum, thus rendering its application more easy and more effectual. In performing certain other surgical operations, the chair will prove of inestimable value to the surgeon, as it is capable of being placed at any angle. Mr Gilbert is entitled to professional patronage for his ingenuity.”—Medical Times, Feb. 10,1849. (From the Literary Gazette, Dec. 9, and London Journal, Dec. 30, 1848.^ PAINLESS TOOTH-DRAWING. Comparatively painless tooth-drawing, without the aid of chloroform or any “ exhibiting” whatever! The inventor of such a practice de- serves the thanks and support of his fellow-creatures, and Mr. Gilbert, of Suffolk-place, Pall-mall, has rendered it available to any operator. He has devised an easy chair for the extraction of teeth, with a back that can be inclined to any angle, and the top of which is semi-cylin- drical for the reception of, and to enable the operator to come close to, the head of the sufferer. There is fixed at the right hand side of this comfortable back a strong steel bar, traversed by a moveable arm, which may be secured at any height, and brought round to the mouth of the patient. The single steel finger, as it were, of this arm, bound round with lint, within the mouth, for the jaw teeth, or opposite to and just above the front teeth, serves as a rest or fulcrum for the forceps of the operator, and the pull is straight in the direction of the axis of the tooth. For the upper or lower jaw, the back of the chair is inclined accordingly, the lower or upper surface of the finger respectively serves for the fulcrum, and the operation, we were assured by one who had ex- perienced it, is thus divested of its terrors, and its hitherto frequent distressing consequences. The assurance of experience, however, is not required to support the fact of the immense improvement of this over the old and soon, we hope, the forgotten practice. The horrid wrench of the “ key ” instrument, the jaw itself the fulcrum, or the painful wriggle of the forceps by the iron wrist of the operator, are no longer to be dreaded, the tooth is lifted from its socket by a single direct movement, and no fracture of the jaw nor laceration of the gum can occur. Many a grateful heart will Mr. Gilbert’s invention secure to him.