Page 184 - My FlipBook

CHAPTER XXXI.

PROPHYLACTIC TREATMENT OF THE MOUTH.

The Importance of Prophylactic Treatment early in a series of
visits to a dentist and at stated periods thereafter, is second only
to the relief of pain, the neglect of which jeopardizes the remain-
ing tooth structures, the permanency of attempts to check the
ravages of caries and disease, as well as the reputation of the op-
erator's skill.
Unhygienic Conditions About the Teeth are the sole, immediate
and exciting cause of primary or secondary decay of the teeth,
and many an operator of exceptional skill as to the making of
fillings has failed from a disregard of these conditions. As much
of the success of dental operations depends upon the care of the
mouth by both dentist and patient in the way of prophylaxis, as
upon the skill of the dentist as an operator. The making of a fill-
ing is but the repair of an injury and is only a temporary check
to the progress of destruction, if the primary cause of dissolution
is to remain operative.
The Sub-Dental Tissues are also diseased by a lack of prophj^-
laxis to the extent, many times, of their entire loss, so that the
teeth, themselves, are loosened and lost, through a lack of struc-
tures to support them, while the teeth so lost are many times yet
undecayed, and, in the present-day advancement of dentistry, ex-
perienced operators are forced to consign more teeth to the for-
ceps from the result of diseased conditions in the tissues surround-
ing them than from decay of the teeth, themselves. If this be
true the dentist cannot ignore the importance of combating the
agencies Avhich bring it about.
Preventive Dentistry has the same great field of usefulness as
has "preventive medicine" in the practice of medicine and the
dentist who masters this phase of the science of dentistry has gone
a long way towards success, and many defects in manipulation,
ability and ideals in conditions about tooth repair impossible of at-
tainment, Avill stand the test of time if only hygienic conditions
are attained and maintained.
The Kinds of Deposits Upon the Teeth are generally classified
as salivary calculus, serumal calculus, green stain and sordes.
The first two named are enemies to tissue about the teeth, while
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