Page 208 - My FlipBook

CHAPTER XXXIV.
PROTECTION OF THE VITAL PULP.

The Normal Pulp has no tactile sense, neither is it responsive to
thermal changes even though they vary considerably from the body
temperature.
When Robbed of Its Normal Covering and Protection the re-
verse of the above conditions quickly develops. The sense of touch
becomes very acute and any contact with foreign substances causes
great pain. This is best illustrated when a tooth is broken through
its crown by a blow, thus exposing the pulp. At first the pulp may
be touched with the finger or an instrument without the knowledge
of the patient but in a very few minutes the same will cause unbear-
able pain. Also at first the cold air does not affect the pulp, but, co-
iiicident with the development of the tactile sense, comes a repug-
nance to the cold.
The Chief Idiosyncrasy of the Pulp is its response to thermal
changes and especially to cold, when these changes are rapid or the
pulp is in any way hyperemic. A normal pulp will tolerate with-
out response quite a range of temperature when the change is brought
about slowly. This is generally the case when the pulp is covered
with the full crown of the tooth. But when, through decay or other
causes, this covering is all or partially lost, the changes are so rapid
that the peculiar responsive features spoken of are developed.
The Recuperative Powers of the Pulp are very slight, the least
of the soft tissues of the body, as it will regain a healthy condition
from only the initial stages of disease. It will many times make
a feeble effort to protect itself when the irritation is mild by filling
up the dental tubuli with calcic matter or a secondary construction
of dentine, through the activity of its odontoblastic layer of cells.
Even this reparative process must not be vigorously inaugurated or
the death of the pulp will result, proving that these reparative meas-
ures on the part of the pulp are pathological, rather than physio-
logical in nature.
The Protection of the Pulp from its greatest enemy, sudden
thermal changes, is most essential and as most of our desirable fill-
ing materials are good conductors of heat and cold it becomes neces-
sary to place some substance which is a poor conductor between the
filling and the dentine, this operation being termed "capping the
pulp."
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