122 EARLY DESTRUCTION OF THE TEETH. 



action is the exciting cause of the decay of the 

 teeth? Why should they have recourse to the 

 operations of filling and filing ? 



In conclusion, I would observe, that if the patho- 

 logy of the teeth were more intimately known and 

 more minutely investigated by the medical profes- 

 sion generally, a Vast benefit would be conferred 

 upon the public. It is from the want of this 

 knowledge that the patient is so often doomed to a 

 course of tedious and ineffectual treatment, and to 

 the endurance of much misery that might have been 

 prevented. How often does it happen, when ttte 

 teeth alone are the cause of suffering, that the 

 mischief is overlooked by the general practitioner, 

 and the pain which the patient suffers attributed 

 to tic-douloureux or rheumatism, or earache, or cold 

 in the face, or to some other equally innocent and 

 unlikely cause ? I believe it to be the duty of every 

 medical man to combine with his other acquirements 

 a sufficient knowledge of dental surgery, so that 

 though he may ultimately refer his patient to the 

 dentist for the remedy, he yet himself may be 

 enabled to form a correct idea of the nature of the 

 diseases of the teeth. I have known cases where 

 for months the patient has been suffering from 

 pain in the face, taking medicine, using external 

 applications, &c., and yet the teeth have never been 

 investigated, although the pain has been traceable 

 to one or more of these organs. 



I have often thought how desirable it would be. 



