The Operator for the Teeth: Charles Allen 1685
The first English Dentistry Text-book.
Page 16
will be such an affluence of blood from the teeth into the gums, that their veins being not able to contain it, are thereupon broken; shedding the blood between the gums and the teeth: where gathering together it corrupts, rotting away all the flesh from about the teeth: otherwhiles the excrementitious humour, that exudates out of the teeth, falling upon the gums, eats them away by degrees etc. But above all other things the scales, and foulness of the teeth are very prejudicial to them. All which infirmities to avoid, you have but to keep your teeth and gums neat and clean from any foulness whatsoever; as has been already said in the foregoing sections: preventing any preternatural collection of blood, or any other humours within the gums, But if the mischief is already done, that is if your teeth be really loose,; and your gums wasted, you must have recourse for their recovery to one well verified in those things: For to prescribe you here any form of remedies, would be to no purpose, since the same thing cannot be good in all cases, and that without the perfect knowledge of the cause of the disease, and a right method in applying suitable medicaments, (which commonly is understood only by practitioners in those concerns) it is impossible ever to perform the cure of any distemper.
I might have told you at the beginning of this section, where I spoke of the Vessels of the teeth, that their artery comes from the Carotids, the vein from the Jugular, and the Sinew from the fifth pair of nerves: but if you are skilled in anatomy, you know it better than I, and if not, my telling of it to you would signify nothing at all, unless I should in the same time, give you an accurate description of all those vessels: tracing them from their origin, even to the very last of their divisions, and further extremities; which would be improper in this place.