102 EARLY. DESTRUCTION OF THE TEETH. 



in consequence of the severe suffering of his child, 

 only nine years of age. His statement was, that he 

 had narrowly watched the progress of his daughter's 

 teeth; that the four molar teeth, two of which 

 occasioned the pain, only made their appearance two 

 years before, and that during that short period they 

 were so broken down by decay as to occasion the 

 most acute suffering. He further expressed his 

 belief that this destruction of his child's teeth could 

 not have arisen from an unhealthy state of the con- 

 stitution (as the public are sometimes led to suppose) 

 inasmuch as she had enjoyed excellent health from 

 her infancy to the present time. 



Cases of this kind frequently come before us, and 

 we are often obliged to remove one or more of the 

 permanent molar teeth soon after they have 

 appeared. From my own observation during a 

 practice of many years, I feel convinced that more 

 teeth are lost, or permanently injured, before the age 

 of twenty than during the after periods of life. It 

 is true, that the durability of the teeth greatly 

 depends upon a healthy state of the constitution 

 during that period when they are being formed; 

 but after they have been formed, and have made 

 their appearance above the gums, the mischief that 

 subsequently befals them is not attributable to any 

 unfavourable change that the constitution is liable 

 to undergo ; the evil arises from another cause. 



The great error into which some of our popular 

 writers upon the diseases of the teeth have fallen. 



