The student's guide to dental anatomy and surgery / by Henry Sewill.

  • Sewill, Henry.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The student's guide to dental anatomy and surgery / by Henry Sewill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/232 (page 4)
    and one posterior. They are broad, compressed, and grooved on the surfaces turned cowards each other, and they have an inclination slightly backwards in the jaw. The root of the lower wisdom tooth, like that of the upper, is often connate, hut occasionally it is bifid or divided into two distinct fangs. The entire set of teeth in each jaw are arranged in an elliptical curve, the incisors, canines and bicuspids forming an almost perfect semicircle, the molars and bicuspids continuing the lines backwards. The lower teeth are placed vertically in front and looking some¬ what inwards at the sides and behind, whilst the cor¬ responding upper teeth have an inclination forwards in front and outwards behind, so that the upper teeth slightly overhang’ the lower. In consequence of this arrangement and the difference in size between the teeth of the two jaws, each upper tooth on closure of the jaws, impinges partly on the corresponding lower tooth and partly on the tooth next following • but the upper dental arch being larger than the lower, and the upper molars being smaller than those of the lower jaw, the upper wisdom teeth do not extend backwards beyond the range of the lower teeth. The teeth are fixed in position by the implantation of their roots in the alveoli of the jaws, the bone, lined with periosteum, investing and accurately fitting them and providing a separate socket for each root. This form of articulation has been termed gomjjhosis, from the resemblance to the impaction of a nail driven into wood. The annexed diagram from Wedl (3) (fig. 1), shows at one view the form and character of a normal set of teeth, the direction and arrangement of the roots