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MANAGEMENT OF CHILDEEN'S TEETH. 237

The vagaries of the minds of children are very difficult to under-
stand. Often they will give their confidence to a stranger when
they will not give their confidence, so far as painful operations
are concerned, to persons whom they know well. One will often
do well, on finding that he has failed in gaining the confidence of
a child, to recommend it to someone else, or have someone else
see it with him. Possibly he may gain the little fellow's confi-
dence in that way and retain it afterward. This will often make
a strong favorable impression on a child and it is of great impor-
tance in the management of a practice. We are too liable to
neglect the little children ; feel that operations for them are not
of much consequence. But children make men, and their friend-
ship tells in after-practice. One will often have to do that for
children that will not seem to pay in dollars and cents; often
it is necessary to spend time with them in which little or nothing
is done ; time for which one will not feel like making a proper
charge. In many cases this is necessary. Often when a child is
first brought to the dentist he should only temporize; not try
to do this or that operation which seems necessary at the time,
but do something to the mouth or to the teeth, something that
will lead the child to suppose that an operation has been success-
fully begun; not something to deceive, but something to gain
the confidence of the child; one should never deceive a child. If
it is necessary to hurt a child, say so. Usually, with children, a
deception is fatal to after-success. A dentist should not allow
parents to deceive children in his office. Often the greatest diffi-
culty in the management of children is the management of the
parents. Parents should not deceive their children with regard
to these operations. To tell a child it will not be hurt, and then
inflict severe pain, is doing that child a wrong; it is lessening
that child's confidence in humanity; and children ought to grow
up with confidence in the integrity and honesty of those about
them.
Relation of Growth and Shedding of the Deciduous Teeth to
Theib Treatment.
While the main difficulties in the management of children's
teeth are in the directions indicated above, there are matters per-
taining to the progress of development of the deciduous teeth,
the absorption of their roots in the process of shedding, their
replacement by the permanent teeth and the development of the
roots of these, that must have careful consideration at every step
of operations upon the teeth of children. Considered from this