PAPERS OX MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH 469 



FOCAL IXFECTIOXS FROM THE TEETH. 

 Fred S. O'Hara, M. D., D. D. S., Spkixgfield 



** Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown" is an old 

 saying; and in the light of our jDresent knowledge of 

 teeth and focal infections, the author of the above phrase 

 was surely referring to the teeth, rather than the head, 

 when he mentioned cro^^^ls. 



A properly functionating tooth is a live member of the 

 body, with its own blood supply and its own nerves. Kill 

 the nerve of the tooth and the blood supply dries up; 

 the dentist "opens up the root canal" and drains the 

 tooth of debris and pus. Unfortunately, the tendency 

 of the poisonous material is to try to escape through the 

 apex of the tooth instead of through the opening that th.^ 

 dentist has prepared, which is usually plugged up with 

 food particles or ''temporary stopping." At the apex 

 of the tooth, these genns that have been pushed up or 

 have gravitated up (or do^vn) to the apex of the tooth 

 root set up shop and await opportunity for some nice 

 clean "dirty work". It is useless for me to endeavor to 

 explain all the processes of infection and of focal infec- 

 tion to an audience who need it about as badly as I need 

 a course upon the geology of the Eock Eiver. My mes- 

 sage is that of warning you against the dangers of de- 

 vitalized teeth and the resultant focal infections. 



I assert that appendicitis, heart lesions, ulcers in the 

 intestinal canal, kidney lesions, various kinds of joint 

 inflammations and a host of other diseases may result 

 from the germs that keep shop at the apices of devital- 

 ized teeth. If you do not believe me, ask your old-tried- 

 and-tnie friend, your family doctor, and unless he is a 

 product of the pliocene period, I am sure that he will 

 agree with me. 



Ask my old friends and colleagues, Drs. Bain and Hull, 

 sitting over there listening to me, how they would like 

 to harbor a culture of streptococcus viridans (germs) 

 and they will answer up v^ry promptly that they are 

 stronglv "ao-in-it". Yet, each and evei'v time a tooth is 



