fr

October, 1936]

DENTAL

CARIES

AND

TUBERCULOSIS

35

ABSTRACTS,

D E N T A L O A R I E S AND TUBERCULOSIS. LEPOIVRE, M. Contribution ~ l'gtude de la carte deutaire. Tuberoulose et carte. Tht~sede Paris, 1935, No. 501. In order to determine whether tuberculosis favours dental caries the writer examined 65 female patients suffering from various forms of pulmonary tuberculosis, and found that the frequency of dental caries was 10"7 per cent., as compared with 9"5 per cent., among young, healthy soldiers, who were presumably free from tuberculosis. His conclusions are as follows: (1) Tuberculosis and dental caries appear to run their course independently of one another. (2) The duration of the tuberculous process does not appear to have any influence on t h e extent of dental caries. (3) The form of tuberculosis bears no relation to the number of teeth affected by caries. (4) The degree of caries in tuberculous patients showing signs of hyperthyroidism is distinctly above the average, as might be expected in view of the fact that hyperthyroidism is an important factor in the eetiology of dental caries. ROSENTHAL, G. De la carte dentaire h la tubereulose ganglionnaire du m~diastin. Paris Mddical, 1935, 25,235. The writer suggests that in children it is the fifth tooth of the first dentition that is apt to become carious, especially in the lower jaw, right or loft. This tooth is apt to persist sometimes for a long period, and before it disappears it will have contaminated the sixth tooth of the lower jaw, which, the writer insists, is always a tooth of the second dentition, i.e. a permanent tooth. A carious sixth tooth will inevitably set up an inflammation in the chain of cervical glands, and sooner or later the ubiquitous tubercle bacillus will lodge in these affected glands, with the resulting danger to the lung. So much is this the case that the writer believes the answer to the question : Why does

the adolescent die of tuberculosls? to be often : Because, towards the eighth or ninth year of life, dental caries has been neglected. I t is, of course, true that dental caries is almost universalwhile tuberculosis is only comparatively c o m m o n ; but this is because happily the individual only succumbs to repeated and concerted attacks ; and in the meanwhile it is an obvious duty, and f o r tunately a simple one, to close one at least of the roads leading to catastrophe. BURMAN, B., and JONSSON, E. La tuberculose bueealo dans ses relations avec l'appareil dentaire. Bey. d. l. T,~b., 1930, 5th set., 2, 83. A perusal of the literature would seem to suggest that the association of buceal tuberculosis with the dental apparatus is extremely rare. The writers, however, believe that, on the contrary, the apparent rarity Of tile association is due to inadequate attention being paid to the possibility--a belief which is confirmed by the fact that within the past eighteen months they have themselves met with no less than 15 cases, some of which they describe in detail, classing them into four groups. Group I consisted of only one case, a man aged 41, who, two months after the extraction of his last remaining 20 teeth, profoundly carious, developed disease at the site of the two incisors in the lef~ upper jaw. Six weeks later his sputum for the first time contained tubercle bacilli and soon after a typical tuberculous ulceration developed, leading to his death eight months after the extractions. To the second group are assigned six cases, all of which resembled each other clinically. After extraction of carious teeth the wounds failed to close satisfactorily, and in two or three of the cases small masses of proud flesh developed on the base of the alveoli. Theglands which were already enlarged at the time of the extractions remained unchanged. In four of these