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150 THE TECHNICAL PROCEDURES IN FILLING TEETH.

it is necessary to make a special root canal plugger for the case
by cutting ofif the barbed portion of a Donaldson broach of a
suitable size and squaring its end on the stone.
Rationale of this procedure.— By flooding the root canal
with eucalyptol or oil of cajuput the moisture is effectually
removed. The oils have a greater affinity or attraction for the
dentin than the moisture and displace it. These oils dissolve
gutta-percha slightly, and the little remaining serves to stick
the gutta-percha firmly to the walls of the canal. By putting
in the gutta-percha in small pieces an opportunity is given to
pack every portion of the canal and all of its irregularities full.
In filling root canals that are very large at the apical end, as
in young persons, care must be exercised that the first cone
selected is not so small that it could be forced through into the
apical space. In very small canals, in which there is much
doubt of being able to reach the apical end, chloro-percha *
should be pumped into them, filling them as completely as pos-
sible, and then a small solid cone forced in. This pumping in
of chloro-percha is done by wrapping three or four fibers of cot-
ton firmly on a small broach, dipping this in the chloro-percha
and conveying it into the canal and pumping it back and forth,
repeating the operation until the canal seems to be well filled.
Then thrust a root canal plugger of suitable size into it and
force out some of the gutta-percha from the pulpal end. Then,
having a suitable gutta-percha cone prepared, quickly stick it
onto the plugger point, and thrust it as far into the canal as pos-
sible. Such canals may not always be perfectly filled by this
plan, or by any other. But in each case the best effort should
be made. The pulp chamber should not be filled with gutta-
percha. This material is much too soft to serve as a seat for a
metallic filling. In any case in which it is not desirable to fill
the pulp chamber with the material with which the cavity is to
be filled, oxy-phosphate of zinc should be used.
Horns of pulp chambers.— Attention to the horns of pulp
chambers is most urgently demanded in the incisors, cuspids and
bicuspids. In incisors particularly, exposures of the pulp,
whether made primarily by caries, or by cutting into them, are
some distance from the incisal end of the pulp, leaving an end
protruding into the incisal end of the crown of the tooth.
Gutta-percha dissolved in chloroform.