AN ACHIEVEMENT IN DENTAL SURGERY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1388, 26 May 1883, Page 4

AN ACHIEVEMENT IN DENTAL SURGERY.

Dr Younger, of New York, has jusj successfuly accomplished an experiment in dental surgery that, is not only interesting hut important, For ;many years the experiment of keeping alive the periosteum of a tooth by inserting it in the comb of a cock soon after the extraction has been tried with success; The periosteum is the layer of tissue surrounding the bone, nn& through which the bone receives its nourishment, When a healthy tooth, before vitality is extinct, is embedded in tliq comb of a cock, it is there, bathed':in healthy blood, and in the majority -of cases tho vitality of its tissues is main-' tained, natural adhesions take place,' and the tooth is soon growing in its new resting place. Some time ago Dr Younger thought that tho practice might be made use of in dentistry. Sometimes teeth are transplanted from one person to another, but a large! number of good teeth are lost for this; purpose, as the transplanting has to be done within a short time after extrac-! tion. When, therefore, a person is willing to have a tooth transplanted to his jaw, it is difficult to find a tooth. By transplanting to the cotmYof a'cock good and healthy teeth may be preserved ready for instant use, Dr Younger determined to try the experi-; menfc and over two weeks ago extracted from the overcrowded jaw of a young lady a bicuspid tooth which was transplanted to the coinb of aicock. There it throve for ten days. 'About %} week ago a young gentleman had oj bicuspid tooth extracted arid wished |q have one inserted in its pla<fe.. Tfee" young lady's tooth was-brought into requisition and five or six day's ago the cock was brought into the operating room and. placed under, chloroform, The tooth was taken out and transplanted to the jaw of the young man, where it is now growing finely. Adhesions have taken place, and the experiment has therefore proved'successful. It is the first operation of the kind that has over been made.,,; Before the tooth was transplanted the' nerves and pulp were removed, as tad ih'ey remained, they would have .decayed, producing a boil, There will, j therefore, be no danger from toothache from that tooth of the young lady, that is now a bright ornament in the lower jaw of the young man, , ;v , , , ,\. ;