Implanting Teeth.

New Zealand Mail, 22 April 1887, Page 10

Implanting Teeth.

The process of transplanting and of re planting teeth is at least 100 years old. A new method, however, of putting teeth where they will do the most good has just come into the light of day, and is being tested by dentists. It is known as implanting. Speaking on this general subject, Dr Norman W. Kingsley, President of the Dental Society of the State of New York, said : ‘ There are three kinds of operations in volved iu the planting of teeth, and they are known as replanting, transplanting, and implanting. Replanting is toe operation where teeth are removed and replaced in the same mouth and the same sockets ; transplanting consists iii taking the teeth from another mouth and placing them in sockets from which the teeth or roots have recently been extracted; and implanting is fhe process of making new sockets in the solid bone, or where the teeth have long been extracted and the bone has become solid, and where the teeth from other mouths or from the same mouth are implanted in the solid bone. Transplanting and replanting are old methods, one o? the earliest successes in them being that of John Hunter, some hundred years ago. In his experiments he found that a tooth recently removed appeared to grow when transferred to the comb of a cock, and this and similar experiments led him to conclude that a tooth would grow in firmly when surrounded by living tissues ; and his success in many instances led to the process of transplanting teeth. Upon this was based the plan of removing teeth and putting in their place fresh teeth obtained from the mouth of another person. This tooth was placed in the newly made socket; and in more recent times the tooth has been removed, cleaned, the pulps removed one or both - and then the tooth replaced in the same socket. The latter is particularly the case where teeth have been knocked out by accident or injury, and they have adhered. ‘lmplanting is of recent date, and probably originated with Dr Younger, of California. He conceived the idea of making an entirely new socket in the solid bone and implanting there a tooth from the same mouth or from that of another person. As this process is in its experimental stage it ie not possible to tell yet how long teeth so implanted will re main firm in the sockets, but apparently satisfactory results have been obtained ; the teeth in instances thus far tried, when manipulated by a skilled dentist, have taken vigorously to their new environments, and seemingly satisfactory results ensued ; yet, as I said, it is impossible as yet to say how long implanted teeth will remain firm. * This process is based on the theory that if the membrane which originally surrounded the tooth still adheres to it, although it has become dried oven, it will be revitalised when the tooth is implanted in its new socket. Theories, however, are of little value in the present stage of the experiments. Still the fact remains, of which there is no question, that teeth have been implanted in these newly-made sockets, have remained for months, and appeared to have adhered vitally to the solid tissues surrounding them; they have so remained for eighteen months. I have seen some cases where the adhesion has been so complete that it would defy an expert to tell which were the implanted teeth and which were there originally, as shown by the color and translucency of the teeth and the hardness of the gums, all of which were quite that of the original teeth.’ —New York Tribune.