The Operator for the Teeth: Charles Allen 1685
The first English Dentistry Text-book.
Page 13
we should take special notice of the Vessels that come into the Tooth: and of their respective functions. The first and chiefest whereof is an artery whose orifice is to bring directly from the Heart, that is hot and spirituous blood, out of which (although it is not the general opinion) the tooth is at first made: (as well as the rest of the whole body) and ever after preserved and repaired by the supply of nourishment, and vital Principles it affords continually: to this effect the whole Artery divides itself into an infinity of small branches, which being disseminated throughout the whole substance of the tooth, distribute to each part as much of their blood as is necessary to make up the incessant loss they are subject to: and the rest is returned through innumerable hair-like Veins into the great ones, and thence to the heart again, but in two different manners: for the superfluous part of that portion of the blood, that is carries by the Capillary Arteries to that part of the Tooth standing above the Gums; is sent back again through some capillary veins towards the middle of the tooth: where uniting together they make but a single channel, and this is it we commonly call the Vein of the Tooth; which we shall here take for its second vessel. But the remainder of the blood, that goes to the relief of that part of the tooth that is within the Gums, passing quite through the substance of the tooth, is carried by the capillary veins to the veins of the Gums, Cheeks, and lips; and hence it is that whatever pain is at any time occasioned in any of those parts (either by bruise, excessive heat, or cold etc.) come to be soon after communicated to the teeth.
The third and last vessel of the teeth is the Nerve, one of the extremities whereof is expanded through the Membrane that invests the cavity of the tooth, and that, that contains its vessels: and the other is rooted in the Brain, from whence it takes