Page 271 - My FlipBook

UTILITY OF STUDIES OF DENTAL CAEIES. 143

impossible in all of those positions which patients can not them-
selves successfully reach.
The work that I have myself done in the prophylactic treat-
ment of buccal surfaces shows plainly that decay of these can be
perfectly controlled by the use of the tooth brush and plain water
by the patient, whenever the habit is sufficiently formed that it
will not be neglected. The principal utility in sight just at the
present time in the study of caries of enamel is that, by these
studies, one will learn to apply extension for prevention logi-
cally to the cases that present, and will not make the mistake of
cutting too wide or of cutting too little, so frequently as is being
done now by men in dental practice. The indications are suffi-
ciently plain to those who know them.
It seems to me that these principles have been described
with sufficient accuracy for all men to learn them. To make
these descriptions better and plainer is one of the objects in writ-
ing this book. Heretofore they have never been illustrated as
we are able to illustrate them now. The idea that dental practice
is purely mechanical and not dependent upon knowledge of the
pathology of dental caries, should be abandoned forever. To
learn to use instruments deftly and to make an excellent filling
from the mechanical standpoint is essential, and it is well that
so many persons are becoming able to do this, but it is not enough
to make a splendid filling from a mechanical standpoint. The
planning of the filling must be such as to adapt it, not only to
the cure of the particular decay, but to prevent the recurrence
of caries in the future.
To do this wisely requires a closer study of the beginnings
of dental caries in the enamel than has yet been made by the
general body of the profession. When this has been accomplished
and the better knowledge of these processes has become gener-
ally diffused, the treatment of dental caries will be far more suc-
cessful than it is to-day. The dentists of the future must have
this information. The prophylactic treatment, or systematized
cleaning, for prevention of caries of the teeth, which is claiming
attention just now, can not be wisely done without a closer study
of the conditions that cause the beginnings and the localizations
of decay, and of the signs of susceptibility and immunity. The
existence of these later conditions, as now understood, has been
recognized so recently that, as yet, no common technical language
has been developed by which the symptoms of coming immunity
can be adequately described. Indications are pointing, however,
to means of doing this in the early future which will give a more