Page 24 - My FlipBook

XV111 PATHOLOGY OF THE HAKD TISSUES OF THE TEETH.
facts, is, with continued observation, assuming greater impor-
tance in dental practice. The systemic conditions producing the
changes in the saliva on which susceptibility and immunity are
based, while mating progress, has not yet assumed any such
exactness of definition as to be of immediate use in practice.
In the technical procedures in filling teeth, the details of the
adaptation of instruments to the work of cavity preparation
have been brought into close systematization through notes of
practical work at the chair representing actual operative experi-
ence. This has been expressed in forms of nomenclature that are
simple, systematic and effective in teaching, in pointing out defi-
nitely the instruments for use and the manner of use of each.
Every detail of cavity form is systematized and brought under
a system of nomenclature comprised under a very few efficient
rules, which render it simple and effective for teaching purposes
and for general use by practitioners of dentistry. All of this has
been systematized and improved through many years of actual
work in teaching and has proven sufficiently flexible to cover all
kinds and varieties of cases presented. The careful classifica-
tion of cavities and of instrument forms adapted to each make it
possible to teach cavity preparation in a way that it is easily
learned ; cavities may be more easily prepared, the time con-
sumed is shortened, the operation is more definite in its results.
Taken altogether, these mark an improvement in the effective-
ness of operative dentistry.
Improvements that seem to have been but little thought of
heretofore have been made subjects of careful study and system-
atization. Operative dentistry, particularly when closely pur-
sued for years together, is extremely taxing upon the nervous
system of the operator, and many men break themselves down
purely through assuming positions at the chair that are unnec-
essarily fatiguing. This arises from assuming wrong positions
in the beginning and the failure to obtain that relief which is
clearly and easily possible by change and the rest that change
brings, without ceasing or slowing the work at the chair. System-
atization of these matters and bringing them under forms of
nomenclature in which they may be taught and discussed under-
standingly should result in great good.
Dentistry has its own nomenclature which has become dis-
tinct from the nomenclature of comparative dental anatomy.
The nomenclature of dental anatomy from the standpoint of
dentistry and of operative dentistry belongs distinctively to