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The Technical Procedures in Filling Teeth.

INTRODUCTION.

UNDER the term Operative Dentistry we include all those
operations upon the natural teeth and soft parts immedi-
ately connected with them that are usually performed by the
dentist. But for convenience in teaching, and by common con-
sent, certain operations are consigned to other departments.
The extraction of teeth belongs to Oral Surgery; the prepara-
tion of natural teeth, or their roots, for crowns and bridges,
belongs to crown and bridge work; the regulation of irregular
teeth to Orthodontia, etc., until to-day operative dentistry is
pretty strictly confined to those operations upon the natural
teeth and soft parts immediately connected with them for the
repair of damage; inflicted by caries, to prevent further caries,
and the treatment of diseases resulting from exposure or death
of the pulps of the teeth. To this is added that group of diseases
of the peridental membrane beginning at the gingival border.
In this book only the hard tissues of the teeth will be con-
sidered, further than some mention of diseases of the dental
pulp and the peridental membrane that interfere with operations
on the hard structures. All diseases of the soft structures con-
nected with the teeth are consigned to dental pathology and
therapeutics, to be considered separately.
The subject matter in this volume will be confined to a
presentation of the technical i)rocedures in filling teeth. No
study of pathological conditions will be undertaken; not even
of dental caries, further than a study of the position and forms
of cavities and such observations as may be necessary in the
explanation of the relation of technical procedures in the prep-
aration of cavities and in filling teeth to the prevention and
cure of disease. The nomenclature relating to cavities and
cavity preparation, instruments and instrumentation, will be
fully presented.