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58 THE TECHNICAL PBOCEDUBES IN FILLING TEETH.

out of good form, for the purpose of callmg attention to errors
frequently met with among students and in offices. Some desir-
able positions could not be so photographed to show them prop-
erly. Further, it will be obvious that the illustrations could not
include everything desirable. Figure 34 shows a very easy and
comfortable position for doing many things of the lighter sort
for the upper teeth of the right side. Figure 35 shows the head
of the patient just a little too high and the operator's arms raised
too much as a consequence of this error. With that corrected,
by dropping the chair a little, it is the position in which to do
the greater bulk of operating upon the upper teeth. In many
cases the position and the work will be rendered easier by turn-
ing the patient's head over to one side or the other in order to
reach certain positions easier.
Figure 36 gives a position of left side behind which, as a
change and rest from that given in Figure 35, enables the oper-
ator to do some part of the same operation with the inverted
pen grasp. This grasp is well shown in Figure 55, with the third
finger resting on the upper teeth. Operations that do not require
much finger power should be chosen for this grasp. The oper-
ator may step around the chair for a little while, change the posi-
tion of the head of the patient a bit, for the rest and comfort it
will be to both during a tedious operation.
Figure 37 gives a very easy and comfortable position on the
left side in front for doing considerable of the excavating and
filling of buccal surfaces in the upper bicuspids and molars of
the left side, and also for doing certain things in distal cavities
in these teeth. The difficulty operators will find at first in this
position is the holding of the upper lip out of the way with the
third and fourth fingers of the right, or instrument, hand while
also using the instrument. A little experience will overcome this.
In Figure 38 is a position that is decidedly undesirable. Per-
fectly good fillings can be made, but it is a position that wears
out strong men with great rapidity. This is because (1) of the
stretching the arms upward in long, tedious operations; (2) the
head of the operator is held too high and there is a constant ten-
dency to stretch the eye oi)en too wide, to relieve the muscles of
the neck; (3) the position is very undesirable because of the
relative position of the operator and patient; (4) the natural
position to assume is looking downward at the work, not upward,
and one tires much more in any position where this is required.
In assuming such positions any man does himself a wrong and
injures his usefulness.