Stomatology in general practice : a textbook of diseases of the teeth and mouth for students and practitioners / by H.P. Pickerill.

  • Pickerill, H. P. (Henry Percy), 1879-1956.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Stomatology in general practice : a textbook of diseases of the teeth and mouth for students and practitioners / by H.P. Pickerill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Again, dental students and dentists should have a clear conception of the cause, diagnosis and course of all those oral lesions which are so intimately associated with dental or peri-odontal tissues, and it is hoped that this book will form a useful complement to the increasing number of dental publications dealing exclusively with operative dentistry. The part played by chronic infections of the teeth and buccal tissues in giving rise to grave secondary systemic and local disorders is rapidly becoming more generally recognized, and it is not sufficient that a practitioner should be content with advising the patient to ‘ get his teeth seen to ’ or ‘ to go to the dentist ’, and thereby absolve himself of all responsibility. In view of the extent to which dentistry is at present practised by unqualified, untrained, and illiterate individuals, it is eminently desirable or even necessary that every medical practitioner should be in a position to be able to tell a patient exactly what the oral condition is, to see that the seriousness of the condition is recognized, to give sound advice as to treatment, and to see that the latter is carried out. Very valuable indications, too, from a diagnostic point of view, may be frequently gained from a critical examina- tion of other tissues in the mouth than the mucous membrane of the tongue. Not only so, but in a large number of cases a medical practitioner is obliged by circumstances to under- take treatment—to give only two instances : ‘ toothache 5 is treated by extraction, and fracture of the jaw by a four- tailed bandage—typical examples of simple, empirical, but frequently eminently bad methods of treatment resulting entirely from lack of training or teaching. There should be no lack of training or teaching, it should be compulsory for every medical student to attend a short class on dental surgery or stomatology before his final examination, in order to ensure that he at least has some knowledge of diseases which will be confronting him