It runs its course, the tartar accumulating,
all the time following up the line of attack. At the end of ten years
what has become of the line of tartar? Sometimes it will be found
extending clear around the tooth. Sometimes it will not be found at all;
it has done its work--the tooth is loose, but the concretion is gone, in
whole or in part. In this case the patient wants the tooth out, but,
he asks, what has become of the tartar? The answer is that the natural
acids found in the oral cavity have dissolved it, and it has passed into
the stomach or out of the mouth in the saliva. But the tooth is so loose
that it is a torment to the man; it lies in its socket, entirely loose,
almost ready to drop over. It hurts so that he cannot bear the pain. The
tooth is taken out. There is no tartar on it, or very little; there is
a little speck near the point that looks like a foreign body; but the
point of the tooth--the apex--is as sharp as a needle. After the
disease has done its work of separating the tooth from its socket, the
destroying agent begins to absorb the tooth at the point, irregularly,
causing the sharpness described. Now, because no tartar is found upon
the tooth, does that argue that it has never been there? Not at all;
the loosened tooth shows simply that it has been there and has been
absorbed.
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