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In a series of sixteen patients with idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia and twenty-one patients with atypical facial neuralgia, it was found that the painful phenomena associated with both disorders were, in nearly all instances, closely related to the presence of maxillary or mandibular bone cavities at previous tooth extraction sites. Standard oral surgical procedures for curettage of the cavities, together with administration of antibiotics, were employed in the successful treatment of both the trigeminal and atypical facial neuralgias, with complete pain remissions for periods varying from 2 months (for most recently treated cases) up to 9 years. The observations and results of this study suggest that dental and oral disorders may play a role in the genesis of trigeminal and atypical facial neuralgia.

As a dental donor, patients were selected who either because of necessary prosthetic restorations or
in children due to other conditions, which also made the removal of teeth necessary. In rare cases
pulpitis was the reason for extraction.

Electrogalvanism had been known at the end of the 18 th century. Since then, this subject has been discussed by many authors.po’) They found that when different metallic restorations are placed in the patient’s mouth electric current generated in the saliva. The intensity of this current depends on the electric potential difference of the metallic restorations,( 7) the fiuid film thickness( 4) and the surface area of the resto rations. (‘ ) Soft tissue irritation, (9) pain in and around the teeth,(lO) corrosion and discoloration of the metallic resotration( 4, 1 1) were considered to be the sequel of galvanism.

“The geographical distribution and other epidemiological characteristics of multiple sclerosis (MS) are compared with those of dental caries. The rates of death due to MS in Australian states are linearly related to the numbers of decayed, missing, and filled (DMF) teeth found in individuals from those states (r=0.97, P less than 0.002). In the United States of America, a strong positive correlation (r=0.55, P less than 0.001) also exists between MS death rates and dental caries indices. The prevalence of MS in 45 countries or areas correlates well with the frequencies of DMF teeth among children of school age in those locations (r=0.78, P less than 0.001). The prevalence of MS also correlates well with the percentage of edentulous individuals in certain countries (r=0.99, P less than 0.001). A review of the literature shows that the risk for dental caries is lower among the following groups: the lower socioeconomic classes in the United States of America; Chinese immigrants to England compared with natives; blacks compared with whites; and males compared with females. The dental caries risk is higher during pregnancy and lactation. All these trends have been described for MS as well. It is suggested that dental caries may be a more accurate epidemiological model for MS than poliomyelitis. It is also suggested that MS and dental caries may share certain aetiological factors, two of which may be dietary excess of certain fats, and vitamin D deficiency.”

During the 1968-1972 period, death certificates were received for 4,190 dentists from 31 state departments of health.  The information, in conjunction with the International Classification of Diseases, provided the basis for this study.

“The rate of fluid movement in the teeth of 28-day-old rats is inversely related to the incidence of dental caries after 13 weeks of the same diets. The early hypomineralization found in the dentin at 28 days is a result of altered metabolism imposed by a reduced rate of fluid transport in the rats fed a cariogenic diet.”

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to correlate the observations which have been made and the present conceptions of the relationship between dental infection and systemic disease. To these will be added the results we have obtained in attempting to apply the observations made by investigators in this field.