Page 110 - My FlipBook

106 THE TECHNICAL PROCEDURES IN FILLING TEETH.

done. Experience has, I think, sufficiently shown that the best
results are obtained by this method. This is in a good degree
copied with the automatic mallets.
The sliding of the plugger point over the surface of the gold
while blows are being rapidly applied is very much more painful
to the patient if the same results in condensation are accom-
plished. A number of machines for this kind of malleting have
been devised that are very convenient in use, and yet they seem
not to be much used, evidently for the reasons I have assigned.
It is perfectly practicable, however, to make good gold fillings
by any one of these plans of using mallet force. The main
questions here are as to ease and rapidity of manipulation in the
first instance, and, in the second, as to comparative ease of
obtaining good results.
In most fillings hand pressure should be used in the conden-
sation of some particular parts to which mallet force is inapplic-
able. Mallet force can be applied successfully only in a direct
line with the shaft of the instrument. In all cases, in which it
becomes necessary to apply force in lateral directions to the
shaft of the instrument, hand pressure must be used, unless
reverse pluggers can be substituted. This can be done in
the more difficult positions in lower molars and bicuspids by
judicious study of the capability of reverse pluggers. The fill-
ing of the incisal anchorage in incisor cavities requires almost
uniformly the use of hand pressure.
The manner in which we now prepare cavities for filling
reduces the necessity for the use of hand pressure more than
ever before, because of the very free access obtained. Conven-
ience in placing the filling material should always be held strictly
in view in the preparation of a cavity.
The Relation of the Size of Plugger Points to the Applica-
tion of Force.
A correct appreciation of relation of the size of the condens-
ing area of the plugger point to the force used is of first impor-
tance in filling teeth with cohesive gold. The force that can
be applied is limited by the capability of the peridental mem-
brane to resist, and the possibilities of the use of more or less
force will vary with the strength and endurance of the mem-
brane. People who have very strong peridental membranes