In the January 1861 issue of The Dental Cosmos, the first major journal of American dentistry, a Pennsylvania dentist named WH Atkinson documented three cases of a remarkable phenomenon that he had encountered over a period of forty years in practice.
The first of his subjects was Reverend DA, who lived in Springfield, Mercer County. In the summer of 1817, he suddenly developed an excruciating toothache.
The right superior canine or first bicuspid commenced aching, increasing in intensity to such a degree as to set him wild. During his agonies he ran about here and there, in the vain endeavor to obtain some respite; at one time boring his head on the ground like an enraged animal, at another poking it under the corner of the fence, and again going to the spring and plunging his head to the bottom in the cold water; which so alarmed his family that they led him to the cabin and did all in their power to compose him. But all proved unavailing, till, at nine o’clock the next morning, as he was walking the floor in wild delirium, all at once a sharp crack, like a pistol shot, bursting his tooth to fragments, gave him instant relief. At this moment he turned to his wife, and said, “My pain is all gone.” He went to bed, and slept soundly all that day and most of the succeeding night; after which he was rational and well.
Photo: stockking on Freepik
Click Here to read more Amusing Planet
