Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/58

54 remaining teeth is much easier than otherwise. If they are out of place, they must be brought back to where they belong, because it is essential that they should be in their proper position and serve as the guides for the regulation of all the other teeth. Then by measuring the width of one of the eye teeth and the two front teeth next to it, a diagram can be drawn which will show the exact shape and size which the jaw should have. A very simple arrangement of springs and wires, which need hardly annoy the child at all, will soon spread the jaws and give the teeth room, so that those that are out of alignment can be brought into their proper places in the arch.

In this arch, like the arch of a bridge over a stream, every tooth must bear its proper share of the pressure, and its loss can never be replaced. A moment's reflection will show the folly of extracting teeth to make room for those out of alignment, and modern dentistry has

proved that such extraction will defeat the object for which it is undertaken, viz., the restoration of the perfect denture. A man who will extract a tooth in regulating may be foolishly clinging to the old tradition, that was spoken of just now, that the unfortunate child had inherited large teeth from one parent, and small jaws from the other. I remember, by the way, in my own boyhood, I seriously thought that I had by mistake got somebody else's teeth, because my permanent teeth were so large and broad, that my jaws could not accommodate them, and were so crowded that several were extracted to make more room. Now I know that my "hatchet face" and "lean jaws" might easily have been prevented had some modern orthodontist, who would die before he would extract a sound tooth, given me the proper advice and care.