Celsus, De Medicina
W. G. Spencer, Ed.

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12 In the mouth too some conditions are treated by surgery. In the first place, teeth sometimes become loose, either from weakness of the roots, or from disease drying up the gums. In either case the cautery should be applied so as to touch the[p. 369] gums lightly without pressure. The gums so cauterized are smeared with honey, and swilled with honey wine. When the ulcerations have begun to clean, dry medicaments, acting as repressants, are dusted on. But if a tooth gives pain and it is decided to extract it because medicaments afford no relief, the tooth should be scraped round in order that the gum may become separated from it; then the tooth is to be shaken. And this is to be done until it is quite moveable: for it is very dangerous to extract a tooth that is tight, and sometimes the jaw is dislocated. With the upper teeth there is even greater danger, for the temples or eyes may be concussed. Then the tooth is to be extracted, by hand, if possible, failing that with the forceps. But if the tooth is decayed, the cavity should be neatly filled first, whether with lint or with lead, so that the tooth does not break in pieces under the forceps. The forceps is to be pulled straight upwards, lest if the roots are bent, the thin bone to which the tooth is attached should break at some part. And this procedure is not altogether free from danger, especially in the case of the short teeth, which generally have shorter roots, for often when the forceps cannot grip the tooth, or does not do so properly, it grips and breaks the bone under the gum. But as soon as there is a large flow of blood it is clear that something has been broken off the bone. It is necessary therefore to search with a probe for the scale of bone which has been separated, and to extract it with a small forceps. If this does not succeed the gum must be cut into until the loose scale is found. And if this has been done at once, the jaw outside the tooth hardens, so that the patient cannot[p. 371] open his mouth. But a hot poultice made of flour and a fig is then to be put on until pus is formed there: then the gum should be cut into. A free flow of pus also indicates a fragment of bone; so then too it is proper to extract the fragment; sometimes also when the bone is injured a fistula is formed which has to be scraped out. But a rough tooth is to be scraped in the part which has co black, and smeared with crushed rose-petals to which a fourth part of ox-galls and the same amount of myrrh has been added; and at frequent intervals undiluted wine is to be held in the mouth; and in this case the head is to be wrapped up, and the patient should have much walking exercise, massage of his head and food which is not too bitter. But if teeth become loosened by a blow, or any other accident, they are to be tied by gold wire to firmly fixed teeth, and repressants must be held in the mouth, such as wine in which some pomegranate rind has been cooked, or into which burning oak galls have been thrown. In children too if a second tooth is growing up before the first one has fallen out, the tooth which ought to come out must be freed all round and extracted; the tooth which has grown up in place of the former one is to be pressed upwards with a finger every day until it has reached its proper height. And whenever, after extraction, a root has been left behind, this too must be at once removed by the forceps made for the purpose which the Greeks call rhizagra.

Now tonsils which have become hardened after[p. 373] inflammation (they are called by the Greeks antiades) since they are enclosed in a thin tunic, should be scratched round with a finger and drawn out. But if they cannot be so detached they should be seized with a hook and excised with a scalpel; and the hollow then swilled out with vinegar and the wound smeared with something to check the blood.

If the uvula, owing to inflammation is elongated downwards, and is painful and dusky red in colour, it cannot be cut away without danger; for usually much blood flows: and so it is better to employ the treatment described elsewhere. But if, though there is no inflammation, it has become drawn so far downwards owing to phlegm, and is thin, pointed and white, it should be cut away; so also when the tip is bluish black and thick, but the base thin. There is no better way than to seize it with a small forceps and below this to cut off as much as we wish. And there is no danger of cutting off too much or too little since we can leave below the forceps only that part which is clearly useless; and cut away what is in excess of the natural length of the uvula. After the operation the same treatment should be carried out as I have just described for the tonsils.

Again the tongue in some persons is tied down from birth to the part underlying it, and on this account they cannot even speak. In such cases the extremity of the tongue is to be seized with a forceps, and the membrane under it incised, great care being taken lest the blood vessels close by are injured and bleeding causes harm. The treatment of the wound afterwards has been described above. And indeed many when the wound has healed have[p. 375] spoken; I have, however, known a case when, though the tongue has been undercut so that it could be protruded well beyond the teeth, nevertheless the power of speech has not followed. So it is that in the Art of Medicine even where there is a rule as to what ought to be done, yet there is no rule as to what result ensues.

Sometimes also under the tongue an abscess occurs which is generally enclosed in a coat and causes much pain. If it is small, one cut is enough; if large, the skin over it is to be excised down to the coating; then the two margins are laid hold of with hooks, and the coating is to be freed from what it surrounds and completely extracted, taking great care throughout the operation that no large blood vessel is cut into.

The lips often split, and this not only is painful but has the inconvenience that speech is hindered; as this is apt to enlarge the cracks painfully and so causes them to bleed. If the cracks are superficial they are better treated by the medicaments used for ulcerations of the mouth. But if the fissures have penetrated deeper, it is necessary to burn them with a fine cautery, spearhead shaped, which should as it were skim over them without being pressed down. Afterwards the same is to be done as for cauterization of the ears.