In the consideration of the treatment of pyorrhea alveolaris, as with any other disease, we must presuppose a knowledge of the disease. There are, however, so many conditions suggested as being causative factors in pyorrhea, that it is hardly possible to assume that any one of them is responsible for pyorrhea, to the exclusion of the resst. Among the conditions which have been advanced as being causative agents in pyorrhea might be mentioned syyphilis, rheumatism, liver affections and autointoxication. These conditions and any other which will lower the resistance of the tissue musst be considered as causative factors in pyorrhea, and their eradication, wherever possible, must be accomplished when the treatment of pyorrhea is undertaken.
Pyorrhea should be looked on as an infectious disease and treated as such. Its inception, then, is based on the resistance of the tissues to bacterial invasion, which must be lowered before the infection can be overcome.