The prevention of dental caries and oral sepsis, being the Cartwright prize essay of the Royal college of surgeons of England for 1906-1910 with some additions / by H. P. Pickerill.

  • Pickerill, H. P. (Henry Percy), 1879-1956.
Date:
1912
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The prevention of dental caries and oral sepsis, being the Cartwright prize essay of the Royal college of surgeons of England for 1906-1910 with some additions / by H. P. Pickerill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    if the teeth were very dhty, to use the acid undiluted. Unfortunately, no records are given of the results obtained by this somewhat heroic treatment. Anton Nuck, a Dutch surgeon of the end of the seven- teenth century, gives a formula for a tooth-powder much used in his time. The ingredients were powdered cuttle- fish, coral-powder, cream of tartar, Armenian bole, and powder of red roses. During the next century we have Junker, Professor of Medicine at the University of Halle, recommending sage and also common salt to be rubbed on the teeth to preserve them from caries. From Pierre Fauchard's book, Le Chirurgien Den- tiste, published in 1728, we learn that tooth-brushes made of horsehair were in use at that time. He himself, however, condemns their use, and advises that the teeth should be cleaned with a fine sponge and tepid water to which has been added a fourth part of amia vitse. Instead of the sponge, the root of the marsh^mallow or lucern might be used. He also gives lengthy and com- plicated prescriptions for mouth-washes, the chief in- gredients of which seem to have been aromatics, alcohol, gums, and sweetening agents. The same author makes the following very decided statement: Little or no care as to the cleanliness of the teeth is the cause of all the maladies that destroy them. Bunon m 1743, in an_excellentjwprlcj_j3 necessity of attenTionT to cleanliness of the milk-teeth, and corre_ctly stated the influence of djsea.se of the latter oyer the jperrnanent teeth. At the end oT the'eighteenth century two erroneous theories gained ground, arid did much to negative the teaching of dental hygiene. The first of these, shared ahke by Hunter and Bell, was that caries originated from within, and was influenced little, if at all, by external agencies. The second was that, in order to keep the teeth free from tartar, it was desirable that coarse and gritty dentifrices should be used, and the