CASE I. Boy of twelve.
Upper right cuspid not erupted, all other teeth in the mouth fully erupted for a year. X-ray no mechanical obstruction. Three doses a week apart of Calcarea carb. 6X. potency. Did not see him for a month after last dose, at that time cusp of tooth was nearly through. Three months later tooth was practically fully erupted. The boy is a redhead, obstinate, snarly, gives sharp answers; has red and inflamed eye lids, sour stomach and frequent attacks of vomiting. Nine months later a very great improvement in general. Happier disposition and is growing like a weed.
CASE II. Small child.
Dirty mouth, black crescents at cervical margins of all teeth, labial surfaces of incisors black spots. Cleaned with pumice, black areas returned in several months. The childs mother brushes the teeth with power with no results. One dose Kreosote 1000. Teeth cleaned again with pumice. Six months later, mouth cleaner, teeth smooth and no sings of return of black areas. Enamel slightly stained.
CASE III. Police officer.
Mandibular nerve black, two days previous to my meeting him in a drug store, where he was cursing, swearing, thrashing around, hanging on to his face, asking the druggist to give him poison. He just couldnt stand the pain. Loaded to the gills with aspirin and bromide. Took him to my office where I gave him Chamomilla 6x. in hot water and some black tablets to chew on. As I expected, he lapped them up one a minute. Fifteen minutes later he was much quieter and said that he could finish his tour of duty. Saw him the next day and he said that the pain was practically all gone in two hours.
CASE IV. Myself.
Mandibular nerve block one hour previous. Pain almost unbearable; irritable, peevish, erratic, weepy, restless, waving of arms, cursing everything and everybody. Could not keep still, trembling upset my coffee cup, didnt care. My sister said, “Dont make a fool of yourself; why dont you take a remedy?” I got my box of remedies and upset the whole works, felt like throwing them out the window; but four little letters on the cork of a bottle were starting me in the face, CHAM. Chamomilla: Childishness, peevishness, irritability, pain. One dose, dry power, 1000th potency. I lay down on a sofa and in fifteen minutes I was asleep. Awakened in an hour, sore but no pain.
CASE V. Man aged thirty.
Mandibular nerve block two days previous. Called me at two a.m., could not get to sleep, restless, pain increasing. Came to the office carrying a small pail of cracked ice. Pain in socket rather than in ramus of jaw, no swelling, good clot, gums not mutilated, x-ray showed all of tooth removed. Sat bolt upright in chair, eyes almost popping out of his head, he was so wide awake. Could not wait an instant after ice in his mouth had melted before placing another piece in his mouth. This is how I treated his case homoeopathically. I noted that he was wakeful, uncommonly so, mind and senses were very acute, his movements were very quick.
The pain he had was in and around the area of injury; this pain was relieved by cold, intense cold, i.e., ice. Look in the repertory and see what remedies have wakefulness greatly marked and pain, especially a sore pain, if it can be so described, which is relieved by application of ice, and Coffea cruda is most prominent. I gave him a single dose (probably the 200th potency). I sat down and pretended to relax but was watching him; soon I noticed that he used the ice less frequently and that his head was back in the head rest. In about twenty minutes so half an hour, he made the remark that he could go to sleep if he were home. Naturally I suggested that he go home and try it.
CASE VI. Homoeopathic physician, age fifty.
Two or three similar previous experiences from the injection of novocaine. Pain, soreness, swelling, lameness in the tendo Achilles of the left foot. He is one of the best known homoeopathic physicians in the country. When he called me up I could tell that he was quite disturbed and I thought it strange that he, with his knowledge of homoeopathic materia medica, should ask me to suggest a remedy. I went on the assumption that he was somewhat stirred up and irritable and suggested Chamomilla. I have used Chamomilla so many times after the use of novocaine where there is pain, seemingly caused by the drug rather than from the surgery, that I think that Chamomilla is a specific.
In all cases previous to injection of novocaine, especially to aged, frail, weak, convalescent, fear, heart, and several insane I administer Aconite, any potency from the tincture to the thirtieth. Dose administered ten to fifteen minutes before beginning of injection. It seems to smooth the patients out, quiets them, they cooperate and they do not seem to have the all-gone symptoms that many have after novocaine. Read Kents Materia Medica wherein he describes Aconite symptoms as of sudden onslaught, violent, tempest, tornado, short duration. Perhaps the unpleasant symptoms that many have while undergoing tooth extraction with novocaine is nothing more than fear. Well, if it is, it would be perfectly natural for any one to have fear if there came a very sudden and violent storm, and Aconite has produced just that type of fear in the provers.
CALCAREOUS AND SERUM DEPOSITS ON THE TEETH.
My experience in treating these cases with homoeopathic remedies has been rather disappointing in all but a few. Calcarea phos. renalis 12th has been recommended, one dose a day for two or three weeks, then a wait for a month or so and then another period of the remedy. All deposits must be removed with instruments, teeth cleaned and polished and then the remedy given. I cannot say that I have had over two cases where I honestly felt that the remedy did prevent further deposits. In other cases further deposits were prevented but I felt that it was due more to the added interest and the careful attention given in cleaning the teeth by the patients themselves.
I know that there are many remedies listed under “tooth-ache”, but we as dentists know that there are so many causes of pain commonly called tooth-ache, and that a very large percent of them are relieved by instruments, that I have not paid much attention to relieving just tooth-ache with remedies. However, there are certain types of cases and conditions where there is the beginning of an ulceration where remedies do greatly relieve and shorten the period of discomfort. I have seen Silica and Mercury hasten the formation of pus and produce such an amount of discharge from an abscessing area as to be astounding. But pain caused from pulp stones, sudden sharp neuralgic pains and trifacial neuralgia I have cured, I trust permanently, and some greatly relieved, by using Magnesium phos. in a series of potencies over a period of a year, ranging from the ten thousandth to the hundred thousandth.
I have cured numerous cases of so called trench mouth in a few days with Mercury of a medium high potency.
CASE: Man and wife, the wifes parents and the pointer dog.
On entering the home the peculiar odor of trench mouth was well- nigh overpowering. All the members of the family were highly excited, said that the dog had gone mad, had bitten one of them: he ran around the house biting the furniture, whining then sharp nervous barks as though in pain. The dog was tied up in cellar and I watched him; he would lean his head against things and then lose his temper and bite at anything he could get hold of. I spoke to him and he looked at me with the most disconsolate expression and wagged his tail, then he would go “mad” again. He kept his lips open and his gums were greatly inflamed, swollen, gray borders, exuding a pussy serum. The people had phoned the S.P.C.A. to come and get the dog and put him out of the way. I said that I did not believe that the dog had rabies but that it was trench mouth, and that his symptoms of madness were simply from pain and discomfort in his mouth and the general feeling of discomfort.
All members of the family showed in a human way exactly the same symptoms as the dog, being rather hard to handle. I decided I needed help on the case and called a homoeopathic physician. The symptoms were all taken down and studied and Sepia was the remedy decided on. One dose of the thousandth potency was given with instructions to use no mouth wash except dilute milk. Some of the remedy was put in to some of the dilute milk well stirred, and offered to the dog. He finally took a little of it. I called up the next day and found that the family were better but that the dog had been taken away. On the second day family was much better. However, they had decided that they should have anti- rabies inoculation, which was done against our advice. The dog was electrocuted and head examined for rabies, none found.
After very hard extractions where the jaw is sore and bruised Arnica hastens the recovery wonderfully.
For about ten years, I did much extracting at a free medical clinic in Boston where only absolutely pure homoeopathic therapeutics were used. You can well imagine the type of people who came to this clinic for treatment. Calendula in aqueous solution was used in every case as a mouth wash and not a single case ever came back with any sloughing or infection. The healing of the wounds was faster than one would ordinarily expect to see, even in people of better circumstances. Many of these people were under-fed, under-clothed, under-housed and more or less vicious in mind and body.
