A DESENSITISER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22825, 9 March 1936, Page 10

A DESENSITISER

DENTAL BOON FOR ALL "CHEAP AS TAP WATER" CONFIRMATION OF SUCCESS From various sources reports have been received during the past few months of a simple and effective toothdesensitiser invented, or discovered, by Dr Leroy L. Hartman, of Columbia University—truly a dental boon which takes away the terror and pain of the dentist's drill.

So unusual were the claims made for its success tbat the reports were generally not credited, and not merely in this far-away country, but in the United States itself, where the formula was announced. Moreover, Dr Hartman was reported as having announced the formula, so that the world might benefit without paying, in patent rights and expensive bottlings, for that benefit. Somehow that did not seem right, for it was hardly conceivable that the solution of the difficult problem of a special type of local anaesthetic could lie in other than complex technique. First-hand confirmation of the success of the method has been received in Wellington (says the Evening Post) in a letter written by Mr M. R. Cable, a son of Mr M. Cable. Mr Cable, jun., is at present at the Dental School of the North Western University, Chicago, and referred to the new method as follows: "Dr Hartman, of Columbia University, who is responsible for the new medium for obviating pain, about which a great deal of publicity has appeared in the press recently, came down to our school and gave a demonstration with his new topical anaesthetic on patients (selected at random, and it produced excellent results in all cases. During the past week it has been successfully used in all our clinics in the dental school." PUBLIC PROPERTY OF PROFESSION. The American Literary Digest devotes practically the whole of the science and medicine section of its February issue to the new dental anaesthetic. The liquid, a simple formula, discovered, after 20 years of research, became the public property of the profession (says the writer). Its discoverer, Dr Leroy L. Hartman, spurned a reputed offer of 250,000 dollars, and gave it to his fellows—and their patients. The son of a dentist, he remembered agonies suffered in his father's office. He began experimenting when he was a young dentist in private practice. He redoubled his efforts when he became professor in dentistry in the Columbian University School of Dental and Oral Surgery. He tried and discarded thousands of formula), and then the correct combination appeared. Guarding his secret strictly, he used the solution in hundreds of test cases. None the less, dentists from coast to coast began hearing rumours of his find. They came to him to get the secret. They all failed, but most of them heard enough to fire their interest. They remained to become experimental subjects. THE FORMULA. The pain-killing solution is available now to everyone. Dr Hartmnn's gift to the profession is without hindrance. It is a simple preparation. Any pharmacist can mix it. The thins to be remembered is that the ingredients must be measured by weight, not volume. This is the formula»Two parts, by weight, of sulphuric ether, one of alcohol, and one and onefourth parts of thymol, a pleasant, aromatic, highly antiseptic substance found in the oil of thyme. There is no warrant that it is perfect, or that it will immunise every patient against pain. Some abnormal cases have been discovered in which it was of no use at all. It must be used carefully. A drop on the lining of the mouth or on the gums will burn uncomfortably. But for the average patient it will deaden the pain of drilling and provide complete freedom from agony for 20 minutes to an hour. There is no after-effect.

The gratitude of his experimental patients was one of the things which caused Dr Hartman to reject a commercial offer for the formula. The same gratitude moves him to grim determination that there shall be no " racketeering" of the formula. He told his fellowdentists that the liquid cost 50 cents to a dollar nn ounce (2s Gd to 5s) —enough for 200 applications. DISCOVERER'S WARNING.

" li' any dentist charges extra for the use of this solution," he added warningly, " I should like to hear about it. The actual cost is half a cent, or less. per treatment." He gave a warning, also, against indiscriminate use of the solution. It must, he insisted, never be used by any but qualified dentists, and, by them, only after they have learned the correct method of application. "To-day," said Dr Hartman, "the pain incident to the extraction of teeth is no longer dreaded: local and general anaesthetics have eliminated that fear. Innumerable people, however, still prefer to wait and have their teeth extracted rather than suffer the rain from cavity preparation. The result of the new solution has been so gratifying that I believe I can save many teeth which would otherwise have been lost. This has been my humble contribution to humanity, and I hope that it will be the means of relieving much unnecessary suffering."