The medical student's guide in extracting teeth : with numerous cases in the surgical branch of dentistry / by S.S. Hornor.

  • Hornor, S. S. (S. Stockton)
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The medical student's guide in extracting teeth : with numerous cases in the surgical branch of dentistry / by S.S. Hornor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    therefore, my desire that dexterity in their use should be carried to the highest degree of perfection, and it is for the furtherance of that desire that I now appear before you. For when we are certain that we are employing all the means that science has placed in our power, and feel supported by that self-reliance which sustains us in all our nobler undertakings, it is then that we can operate boldly and resolutely. If, on the contrary, we do not possess this confidence in our ability, it is better that we should lay down the instrument, and refer the case to abler hands. For one-half the failures in extracting teeth are owing to timidity on the part of the operator; and it should always be remembered that every unsuccessful attempt is attended with more suffering to the patient than if the tooth had been extracted. And though the chances of popularity may rest with him who discourages, rather than recommends, the enduring of any painful operation, or, in other words, with him who would cure the pain without removing the disease; yet no personal consideration should prevent us from performing our duty to the sufferer, by the thorough removal of the diseased organ. If decayed teeth were always thus operated upon (that is, with regard to their proper preservation), head-aches, face-aches, and other pains peculiar to middle-a^ed females, would not be heard of, for many of them