[FN#25] Bell on the Teeth.
The following form, also, may be used with advantage:--
Prepared chalk, three ounces;
Orris root, powdered, half an ounce;
Powdered myrrh, half an ounce;
Cuttle fish, powdered, one ounce;
Essential oil of cinnamon, four drops.--Mix.
The best preservative, then, against the formation of tartar, is to
see that the child cleans his teeth thoroughly night and morning with
the brush, powder, and water, and also (if possible) that he rinses out
the mouth after each meal.
If the gums should be tender, irritable, and bleed (as is frequently
the case when an individual gets out of health, or the tartar
accumulates) the mouth may be washed night and morning with a tumbler of
tepid water, containing from ten to twenty drops of the tincture of
myrrh, and the same quantity of spirits of camphor; or the following
form may be used:--
Alum, one drachm and a half;
Tincture of myrrh, two drachms;
Camphor mixture, five ounces and a half.--Mix.
ACIDS.--The use of acids to the teeth cannot be too strongly deprecated:
they decompose their substance, and lead to their rapid decay. Hence
the whiteness produced by acid tooth-powders and washes is not less
deceitful than ruinous in its consequences. As has been just observed,
they perform all that their vendors promise, causing the teeth, for a
little while, to become very white and beautiful in their appearance,
but, at the same time, injuring them irremediably: the enamel becomes
gradually decomposed, the bone of the tooth exposed, and its death is
the inevitable consequence.
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