EOTAL COLLEGE OF DENTAL SUEGEONS OP ONTARIO, The sixteenth annual examination of the Koyal College of

Dental Surgeons of Ontario was completed on March 6, 1885. JSTo

commencement exercises are held. The examinations being entirely

written, no thesis is required. There were twenty-four students attending lectures throughout

the session.

Certificates of license to practice dentistry in Ontario and the

title of L.D.S. were granted to the following gentlemen, viz.:

BESIDENCE.

John F. Adams Toronto.

A. H. Cheeseborough Toronto.

R. P. Morrow Lindsay.

W. W. Patterson... Paris.

RESIDENCE.

G. A. Teeple Amherstburg.

C. G-. Thompson Pictou.

A. H. Weagant Cornwall.

EDITORIAL.

HILLISOHEB'S DENTAL NOTATION.

Br. H. Th. Hillischer, of Yienna^ Austria, in a communication to the Dental Cosmos, proposes for general adoption a system of symbols for the graphical designation of the human teeth in their several positional relations after eruption, providing also for the record of defects in, operations on, substitutes for, or malpositions of individual teeth.

For the permanent teeth, four groups of eight numerals are arranged as follows:

8,7,6,5-,4-,3.,2-,

The respective teeth of the upper or lower jaw are indicated by the position of the numerals above or below the horizontal line, and their situation relative to the median line is shown by points on the median-line side of the figures.

For instance, 1 • represents the superior right central, and • 2 is the symbol of arTTnferior left lateral. It is mnemonically easy to remember that a figure above the line stands for an upper tooth, and a figure below the line for a lower tooth; while the right side of the median line of both jaws is indicated by a point on the right side of a figure, and the left by a point on its left side.

5 • , • 3 is a group of symbols representing the superior right

6 • , • 4 second bicuspid, and left cuspid, the inferior right first molar and left first bicuspid in their normal positions and conditions.

A carious cavity, defect, filling, or substitute may be denoted by an initial letter before or after a symbol, and bearing the signification indicated in the following table:

a. —Artificial substitute on plate of any kind.

b. —Buccal ." position or cavity.

c. —Coronal.. cutting or grinding surface, or cavity.

d. —Distal position or cavity.

e. —Erosion

f. —Filling- of any material.

i. —Irregular position.

1. —Labial position or cavity.

m.—Mesial position or cavity.

p. —Palatal or Lingual position or cavity.

pp.—Pulp

r. —Root

s. —Supernumerary

t. —Treated

x. —Extracted ,

Compound cavities may be described by combining the letters within parentheses, as for instance, • 3 (1 d) is the notation for a labio-distal cavity in the superior left cuspid, while the same formula with the parentheses omitted— • 3 1 d—represents distinct cavities, one labial and the other distal in aspect.

When a substitute is to be indicated, the record may be made in this form, * 2 a, which signifies an artificial superior left lateral mounted on a plate of any kind, and a group of such teeth would be noted in this way: 4 • a, 1 • a, • 6 a,—reading, "a superior right first bicuspid, right central, and left first molar, mounted on a plate." If the case is that of a root carrying an artificial crown, then the formula would be this -Ira, signifying an artificial crown on a superior left central root.

2 *, 2 • s i p, 1 • is the graphical expression for a supernumerary superior right lateral in an irregular palatal position between the central and lateral. If in line with them the formula would be 2 • , 2 • s , 1 •. Obviously any dental irregularity or malposition may likewise be noted.

The same system is applicable to the deciduous teeth by employing for distinction the colon, or double point: preserving, to avoid confusion, the relative significations of the numerals of the permanent set. The deciduous diagram is thus expressed:

7:, 6:, 3:, 2:, 1: 1 :1, :2, :3, :6, :7
7:, 6:, 3:, 2:, 1: I :1, :2, :3, :6, :7

The following example is a representation of the dental aspect of a child seven years of age, exhibiting: In the superior maxilla the permanent centrals, left lateral, right first molar, coronally carious; left first molar, confidently carious on its mesial, coronal, and distal surfaces; the deciduous right lateral, distally carious; right cuspid; right first molar, mesially carious; right second molar, coronally carious; left cuspid, distally carious; left first molar roots; left second molar: In the inferior maxilla, the permanent centrals and laterals; right first molar, coronally carious; left first molar, coronally and distally carious; deciduous cuspids; right first molar roots; right second molar, distally carious; left first molar, buccally carious; left second molar, coronally carious: 6 • c, 7 : c, 6 : m, 3 :, d 2 :, 1 •, • 1, • 2, : 3 d, :6 r, :7, • 6 (m o d) 6 c, 7 : d, 6 : r, 3 :, 2 •, 1 •, • 1, • 2, :3, :6 b, :7 c, • 6 c d

The whole scheme is clearly comprehensive, and by its means the most complex as well as simple dental aspects and operations may be represented and described in the smallest space, least time, and simplest manner.

In further illustration of its uses, Dr. Hillischer says: "If, for instance, I wish to give a patient that I have examined over to an assistant for operative purposes, I sketch the work to be done thus: 8 -, 5 •, 4 •, 1 •, ■ • 1, • 6, • 7 6 • I .6

or, more fully,

8 • c, 5 • m, d 4 •, 1 • m j m . 1, -6 c, -7b
______ | ~Tg^*

"In a large practice, where a division of work is necessary, the examining physician gives the patient that he sends to the extracting room a note with a printed formula, on which he has cancelled the symbols of the tooth to be extracted. To avoid any misunderstanding, an r (root) may be placed over or under the proscribed tooth if its crown be wanting."

PBOPRIETAKY AND MIXED ANESTHETICS. There seems to be a tendency on the part of some practitioners of medicine and of dentistry to experiment with mixed anesthetics, or, worse still, with proprietary and secret compounds, highly indorsed by the secular press, by the reverend clergy, and by the editors of religious journals. These gentlemen write of the relative superiority and safety of a given compound as glibly as though their lives had been chiefly occupied in investigation of the various agents employed to produce anesthesia; and they mean apparently that their trumpets shall give forth no uncertain sound. Thus, one reverend gentleman assures the world that a certain preparation is "infinitely superior to all other anesthetics." While the rationale of the action of the various anesthetics upon the animal economy is still largely an unsettled problem to those of greatest experience in their use, it would seem that "infinite superiority'* could hardly be admitted on the testimony of a non-medical man. Stranger still, however, is the willingness of a professional man to accept the responsibilty of administering, for the production of general anesthesia, an agent of the composition of which he is not fully informed, and as to the peculiar action of which he is ignorant.

It is well known that the various anesthetics produce their effects upon the economy by entirely different methods, and that when signs of danger appear the remedies and treatment required differ accordingly. The procedure which in one case is the best is not only not indicated in another case, in which the unconsciousness has resulted from the employment of a different agent, but would be absolutely harmful and dangerous. How, then, in the presence of untoward symptoms following the inhalation of admixed anesthetic, or of one the composition of which was unknown to the administrator, could intelligent relief be afforded? Chloroform, ether, and nitrous oxide are all for sale in the open market, and a pure article of either can be procured. Their properties, advantages and disadvantages, methods of action, modes of administration, the condition contraindicating the employment of one or the other, signs of danger, and procedure in threatened trouble all have been carefully studied, the facts reported, the theories deduced discussed, and some general conclusions, founded on the facts and the theories regarding them, have been widely accepted.

By almost common consent chloroform for minor operations has been discarded, because of the conviction that it is more dangerous to life than ether or nitrous oxide. Ether is seldom employed in the dental office, on account of its persistent odor, the length of time required for complete recovery from its effects, and the nausea which it frequently causes. Nitrous oxide has come to be used almost exclusively by the dentist, on account of the facility with which anesthesia is produced by it and the transient duration of its effects, but chiefly because for short operations it is deemed the safest of all anesthetic agents. That it or any other anesthetic is absolutely free from danger under all circumstances cannot be affirmed j but that pure nitrous oxide gas is the safest general anesthetic known is beyond controversy.

In view of the conceded fact that general anesthesia is not absolutely free from danger to life, such an interference with vital functions as is included in the condition brought about by any anesthetic should not be undertaken by anyone except by approved methods and with agents which have been the subject of the most searching investigation, and the rationale of whose action has been ascertained, at least to the extent which makes intelligent effort at resuscitation possible.

THE

DENTAL COSMOS.

Vol. XXVII. PHILADELPHIA, MAY, 1885. No. 5.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

THE EFFECTS OF PULPLESS TEETH REMAINING IN THE JAWS.*

BY A. W. HARLAN, M.D., D.D.S., CHICAGO, ILL.

The paper which I am about to read to you had been finished some days before I saw the Dental Cosmos for February, which contained an account of a previous meeting of this society, during which a discussion ensued on the subject of the "Effect of Pulpless Teeth when Left in the Jaws." Not having sufficient time at my disposal to rewrite that portion reviewing the various letters and editorials in the Medical Record, is my excuse for compelling you to listen to the brief extracts which find place in this essay.

From time to time the editor of a medical journal, or one of his occasional contributors, deems it necessary for his happiness to say something about the influence of dead (pulpless) teeth in the jaw& being a prolific source of irritation to some portion of the human frame. Generally speaking the articles of both editor and contributor attract little or no attention. Of late, however, this has not been the fate of such contributions, and for proof of this statement you are referred to a series of letters which have recently appeared in the Medical Record, of New York,- Before speaking of these letters particularly, it is necessary to go back a little and give you a resume of what had previously appeared in the same journal, which has a bearing on what I am about to say with reference to the effects of retention of pulpless teeth in the jaws.

As long ago as May 5,1883, Dr. Samuel Sexton, of New York,