The diseases of the human teeth : their natural history and structure : with the mode of applying artificial teeth, etc., etc. / by Joseph Fox and Chapin A. Harris ; with two hundred and fifty illustrations.

  • Fox, Joseph, 1776-1816.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of the human teeth : their natural history and structure : with the mode of applying artificial teeth, etc., etc. / by Joseph Fox and Chapin A. Harris ; with two hundred and fifty illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    CHAPTER THIRTEENTH. OF GUM-BOIL AND ABSCESS [ALVEOLAR ABSCESS.] [Inasmuch as the seat of the above named disease is always within the alveolus, the gum being only secon- darily affected, it would be more proper to term it, as Mr. Thomas Bell justly remarks, alveolar abscess, and should be treated of under the head of diseases of the alveolar process.] Carious teeth frequently become inflamed at the root, and suppuration takes place in the socket, attended with swelling and soreness of the gums. In these cases, the same laws are observed for the exit of matter as in abscess in general, viz. ulceration takes place in some part of its surface, so as to make an outlet for the matter in the best possible situation. When matter forms at the root of a tooth, the periosteum wrhich covers its fang thickens, and in some cases becomes detached from it; the matter is accumulated as in a bag, by the extension of which, considerable pressure is made against the sides of the socket, the consequence of which is, that that part of the alveolar process, situated on the outside, becomes absorbed, [wasted] rather than that within the mouth.* The ulcerative process continues until the gum bursts, nearly opposite to the place where the point of the fang is situated, and thus the matter escapes from this natural * Plate XVI. Fig. 10,11.