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196 THE TECHNICAL PROCEDURES IN FILLING TEETH.

on them is too thin to have sufficient strength to prevent it being
battered out of form. In many of these cases, the incisal edges
of all of the incisors, or only the centrals, as already suggested,
may be ground away in imitation of normal wear, and the incisal
edge thickened without injury to the appearance. In doing this,
it is well to remember that in very thin teeth the horns of the
pulps are likely to be long and slender, increasing the danger
of exjDosing them in cutting the step.
In cases where there has been such wear of the incisal edges
of the teeth that the dentin is exposed, the step should include all
of the exposed dentin. Very little cutting from the lingiial
enamel plate will be needed, and generally none from the labial.
In the management of this class of cases, it should be remem-
bered that in such large cavities, the bulk of gold in close prox-
imity to the pulp is liable, through its conductivity of thermal
changes, to set up irritation that will destroy its vitality. If
there seems to be imminent danger of this, it is better to remove
the pulp at once. It is also better to remove the pulp at once
than to run" serious risk of losing the tilling from insufficient
anchorage in the effort to save the pulp alive.
In all of these cases, esthetic practice calls loudly for porce-
lain inlays instead of gold fillings. There is no form of filling
that mars the appearance of a tooth so much as the restoration
of a lost angle with gold, unless, indeed, it is the restoration of
both angles of the same tooth. The fact that the incisal margins
of porcelain inlays in these positions will generally chip away
and eventually result in the loss of the inlay, should cause the
operator to consider such cases very carefully. While at present
only a few well selected cases promise good results with porce-
lain, it seems generally best to restore these with the lightest
shade of platinum gold.
In all such restorations, it should be distinctly remembered
that the good appearance of the tooth depends most directly
upon the modeling of the tooth form. This is even more impor-
tant than the color. Such a tooth restored with gold, giving per-
fect tooth form, will be better from the esthetic standpoint than
a restoration with porcelain of satisfactory color but unsatis-
factory in form.
Anchorage in the pulp chamber. Preparation of anchor-
age for restoration of the lost angle with gold after removal of
the pulp of the tooth, should be on entirely ditTerent lines. The
weakened angle should be cut away to the first labial groove as
before, but no step should be cut along the incisal edge of the