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142 THE TECHNICAL PROCEDURES IN FILLING TEETH,

with 1-2-3, oil of cloves or oil of cassia, and then drying them
off with absorbent cotton. Then the gutta-percha filling may-
be softened by warming a burnisher and passing the hot point
into it, and holding it for a moment to allow the general softening
of the gutta-percha, when it may be lifted out.
The cavity is now freed from the arsenic paste and washed
out with the antiseptic and dried. It is now ready to proceed
with the opening of the pulp chamber. In case the pulp has
been anaesthetized with cocaine, the rubber dam will be in place
and ready for the opening of the pulp chamber so that from this
time the procedures in the two cases will be similar. In either
case the pulp should first be pricked cautiously with a very fine
broach, to be sure that it has lost its sensibility, for sometimes
there is a failure in either way of operating. Having determined
that the conditions are favorable for removal of the pulp, the first
operation is the opening of the pulp chamber. In the bicuspids
and molars this consists in the removal of the entire roof, or den-
tinal covering, and the manner of doing this will depend much
upon the extent and the location of the decay.
In occlusal cavities in the molars in which the decay is
large, often the hoe 6-2-23 can be slipped into the opening and
the roof of the chamber pulled away, uncovering the entire pulp.
But when the dentinal covering is strong, as is usually the case
when the opening is only the exposure of one of the horns of the
pulp, the better way is to enlarge the opening with a small fissure
bur. This is passed into the pulp chamber through the orifice
of the exposure, and when the operator is sufficiently sure in his
knowledge of the anatomy, he may cut around the pulp chamber
parallel with its axial walls and remove the covering in a single
piece. Otherwise the opening may be enlarged by carrying the
bur laterally toward the central portion of the covering of the
chamber and then carrying it around in a circle. Then hoe
6-2-23 may be passed into the opening and its blade turned
under the roof covering the pulp, the overhang determined, and
the cutting directed, until the whole extent of the chamber is
uncovered ; no overhang should be left at any point. In this
cutting the greatest care should be taken that the bur be not
pressed onto the floor of the chamber and its form marred by cut-
ting into it. When the whole of the roof has been removed, it is
generally best to enlarge somewhat toward the mesio-buccal