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CUTTING INSTRUMENTS. 17

CUTTING INSTRUMENTS.

ILLUSTRATIONS: FIGURES 15-24.

IN the past the want of some recognized scheme of nomen-
clature and classification of dental operating instruments
which would individualize the instruments of the several orders
and classes has been a great bar to progress in teaching instru-
mentation. This has been felt by all who have labored for exact-
ness in their operations, or have endeavored to express the
manner of their performance in writing, or to speak of the
instruments used. A teacher had no means of telling his stu-
dents just what particular instrument he would use in i^erform-
ing a specific act in excavating a given cavity. So long as the
writer or speaker is without this means of commimication,
students in school, dentists in societies, or readers of the litera-
ture, will be unable to know just what is meant, and any descrip-
tion of cavity preparation will be confusing and without the
force of exactness. That which is needed is a strict classifica-
tion of the useful forms of excavators, pluggers, etc., and a
nomenclature that will designate each individual form.
Students need in the beginning of school work a close drill
in the appreciation of the forms, particularly of cutting instru-
ments, which will enable them to discover the peculiarities of
each with exactness, as to width, length and angle of blade
and the proportions of the several parts. If this be coupled
with a close drill in the uses and observation of the capabilities
of each of the several classes of forms, an impression will be
made upon the mind and a skill acquired by the hand that will
be a great aid in the development of manipulative ability. Such
a nomenclature has now had sufficient trial and is found adapted
to the naming of all manner of cutting instruments and pluggers.
INSTRUMENT NOMENCLATURE.
Names of parts. Each excavator is composed of a shaft,
which is used as a handle, a shank and a blade. Usually in exca-
vators, the shaft is perfectly straight and without variation in
size. The shank begins with the first turned part and connects
the shaft with the blade or working point. It usually tapers