Teeth explode in your mouth when you overreach toothache, what is the cause of it?

ByAmy Bundy

A dental specialty magazine published in the United States from the 19th century to the 20th century "Dental Cosmos"Is known as the first major dental journal in the United States. Among the past dental-related cases described in this special journal, the particularly funny thing was written by Atkinson who was working as a dentist in Pennsylvania in the 19th century "Teeth explodeIt is a case that it is a case called.

BBC - Future - The gruesome and mysterious case of exploding teeth
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160301-the-gruesome-and-mysterious-case-of-exploding-teeth


Mr. Atkinson, who has been treating a lot of people's teeth as a dentist in Pennsylvania, wrote in Dental Cosmos, "I saw what the teeth were exploding in the mouth of the patient three times in the past."

Case 1: Pastor
The symptom "At the moment the teeth explode" that Atkinson encountered was found for the first time in the mouth of a pastor who was born in Springfield in 1817. The pastor is the right cuspid of the upper jaw or the firstBicuspidIt is said that the pain started at the beginning, and it seems that the pain was increasingly difficult to be kept still and it was trying to confront the pain somehow while thrusting his head into cold water.

At that time, toothache was fear of people like genuine torture, there are records that men committed suicide in 1862 when they continued to endure toothache in Sussex for 5 months. In this record, it seems that "It is observed that he was crying for many hours every day during the period when he was suffering from a toothache."

However, according to what Atkinson wrote, the pastor who was suffering from a toothache will have a different result than the example of Sussex. Every therapy that was known at the time was tried and it turned out that the pastor who suffered from toothache was walking while saying the shit at 9 o'clock the next morning at 9 o'clock when they found it useless. Then, suddenly a sharp sound like pistol shot sounded, and it seems that the tooth which was the source of the toothache broke down into pieces. And the next moment, the pastor said to the wife, "The toothache has disappeared" and it seems that he lay down on the bed and slept soundly until the night of the next day. After I awoke, the pastor seemed very intelligent and well-being.


Case 2: Mrs Leticia
In 1830, 13 years after Mr. Atkinson first encountered the symptom "a tooth explodes", I will be responsible for a patient very similar to the first case. The patient is a man named Mrs. Letizia, he said he was a man living a distance of several miles from Mr. Atkinson's residence. She seems to have been suffering from toothache for a long time, but he said that "pain accompanied with explosion" took place.

Case 3: Mrs. Anna
And the third case is observed in 1855. The patient who experienced the explosion of the teeth was Mrs. Anna, and it seems that the cuspid teeth broke up in front and behind along with the explosion. The report says, "The teeth suddenly broke and suddenly the pain was pulled down", which shows that this trend is similar to other cases. Of course it is stated that Mrs. Anna is healthy and spirited up as a mother of energetic girls after the teeth explode.

BySeth Stoll

◆ Other cases
Although these cases are unique, they were not such as to report only one case. Also,RecentlyIt is a British dental journalBritish Dental JournalHe emphasizes that there are clearly similarities in this symptom by quoting books that collected cases on "explosion of teeth" created in 1965.

Also, articles published by British Dental Journal include items other than those observed by Atkinson. For example, in a case observed by an American dentist, J. Phelps Hibler, at the moment when a young woman suffering from a toothache felt a big shake in a molar, this suddenly exploded and the woman was knocked down pattern. The explosion sound is so big that the woman can not hear his ears for several days after the explosion.

As you can see, there were 5 to 6 other "explosions of the teeth" observed by Mr. Atkinson in the middle of the 19th century, but there seems to be nothing left as sentences. And then the "explosion of teeth" was observed in the 1920s.

According to Hugh · Debrin, who was a professor of restorative dentistry at the University of Manchester, "Although the symptoms that teeth explode are very common symptoms, this burst sound has never heard before." . Furthermore, according to Mr. Debrin, one of the Antarctic explorers of the 1960s seems to have reported that "their teeth crumbled naturally". This was considered a phenomenon caused by extremely cold temperatures, but Mr. Debrin imagined that the true cause was in the caries caused by a diet high in sugar.


◆ Why do teeth explode?
In an article contributed to Dental Cosmos, Mr. Atkinson tried to explain the mechanism of explosion of teeth with two hypotheses. One of them is "a substance called (free caloric)" accumulates in the teeth, and an explosion occurs when pressure is applied after a certain amount has accumulated ". However, this hypothesis was believed until the early 19th century "Caloric theoryIt is clear that it is a mistake.

The second hypothesis set by Mr. Atkinson is that "gas accumulates in the mouth due to corrosion of the teeth, which caused an explosion" and it seems to be more credible than the first hypothesis. However, Mr. Debrin says, "I do not think the gas will accumulate enough to crush the teeth, the dentists of the 19th century did not understand that the decayed teeth come from the interior of the teeth.When we had a tooth decayed It is from the 20th century that we began to understand that it is caused by bacteria accumulated on the surface of the teeth and the teeth, "he said in a negative opinion on this hypothesis.

ByA Silly Person

According to Mr. Atkinson 's hypothesis, Mr. Debrin says that the mechanism by which teeth explode may be in "Chemicals used in early stuffing". In the 1830's, the era before the emergence of mercury mixtures, various metals were used as "stuffing" filling the empty holes with tooth decay. It seems that various metals such as lead and silver were used for the metal.

Andrea Sella, a professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London, said, "If two different metals were used as paddings, creating an effective low-voltage electrochemical cell in the human mouth It is possible. " It seems to be because it causes spontaneous electrolysis by placing a mixture of metals in the mouth. And, "If the hydrogen generated by this electrolysis is unfortunately left in the tooth hole, there is a good possibility of explosion," explains the process by which the tooth explodes. And the source of the explosion is "For example, the patient is smoking a cigarette or sparks are caused by iron paddings".

However, we have not found any evidence that "The tooth was filled with metal" among the patients cited as examples this time. Therefore, it is also suggested that the possibility that an explosion occurred by an unknown process, or that the patient might report the symptom to extraordinarily. Therefore, the "process by which a tooth explodes" still remains unknown, there is a possibility that an unknown power which no one knows yet has worked.