Principles and practice of filling teeth / by C.N. Johnson.

  • Johnson, Charles Nelson, 1860-1938.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles and practice of filling teeth / by C.N. Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    slightest manipulation on the surface. The surface should there- fore be left alone as largely as possible till the sides of the bur have undermined it in advance. In the successful management of these cases there must be no hesitation and no half measures. The operator must know definitely what he is going to do, and then do it with the greatest dispatch and precision. It requires a masterly, vigorous hand, wielded with the utmost delicacy. Sometimes the surface sensitiveness of these cavities may be greatly reduced by medication and desiccation. For this purpose carbolic acid, followed by alcohol evaporated with warm air, seems to give the best results with the least accompanying discomfort. The application of drugs which cause more pain on contact with the dentine than would the preparation of the cavity itself should be discontinued, unless for those exceptional individuals who seem to prefer any kind of pain rather than pain given by an instrument. With very many cavities it will be found that the sensitiveness is confined to one or two small areas, which if dextrously under- mined or cut through quickly will solve the problem in short order. When an operator discovers in a cavity one of these sensitive points he should avoid manipulating it, unless with a definite attempt at its complete removal. The last class of cavities for consideration relates to those occa- sional cases where the teeth are in an unmistakably hypersensitive condition, where the slightest pressure upon a cavity results in pain, and where anything like thorough manipulation is out of the question. There is one of two courses to pursue: either to numb the sensibilities of the tooth by cataphoresis, with all of its con- comitant paraphernalia, its consumption of time, its accidents, and its as yet undetermined ultimate results, or to employ as a temporary expedient till the sensitiveness subsides some filling- material such as cement, which may be used without the thorough preparation of the cavity required for the metals. Sometimes one course is indicated and sometimes the other, but in the large percentage of cases it will be found better to make use of temporary fillings to tide the teeth over the sensitiveness, rather than to follow the general employment of cataphoresis.