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254 PATHOLOGY OF THE HARD TISSUES OF THE TEETH.
better for the use of the silver nitrate in the limiting of the
decay that will occur, even if we do not entirely succeed. We
may repeat this again and again, if the cavity is not so large
as to encroach too near the pulp of the tooth. When these have
been excavated, they may be filled readily with amalgam, or with
gold in some cases. When a case can be handled sufficiently well
to fill with gold, one should not use silver nitrate and have the
tooth blackened about the margins of the filling, but should
excavate and fill the cavity just the same as for an adult. There
is no difference whatever in the operation except that we have
the child to deal with. Taking it all in all, amalgam seems to
be the best material for filling this class of cavities, though
oxyphosphate of copper cement is often doing excellent service.
TREATMENT OF DECAYS IN THE PROXIMAL SURFACES OF DECIDUOUS
MOLAR TEETH.
These are difficult in the extreme to handle. The deciduous
molars are larger than the bicuspids which come in their place,
and they are in many cases considerably crowded when the per-
manent incisor teeth come through. The deciduous cuspid tooth
is also smaller than the tooth which will replace it. If we cut the
proximal surfaces of the deciduous molars, they usually fall
together very quickly, consequently we are, in a measure,
debarred from that method of handling proximal cavities in
them; and yet not entirely, for, if we can treat these cavities
when they are small, we may, by a different method, cut them out
without separating the teeth so far as to be in trouble from their
dropping together. Generally we will find these decays begin-
ning pretty close to the occlusal portion of the surface, or near
the marginal ridge, and the form of the crown is such that if
we slope the cut well to the linguo-gingival, i. e., slope our cutting
toward the gingival on the lingual, we may cut away considerably
without entirely destroying the contact of these teeth, or, if we
destroy the contact, leave enough of enamel upon the proximal
surface toward the buccal so that it will come against the enamel
of the next tooth, making a new contact that will be good and
sufficient. The occlusal surfaces of the deciduous teeth are repre-
sented somewhat enlarged in Figure 183. In Figure 184 they
are represented as the proximal surfaces should be cut in this
treatment. Generally decay has occurred in the bucco-lingual
center of the occlusal third of the mesial surface. We may make
a cut in this way, sloping linguo-gingivally, and leave a portion
near the buccal angle of the surface to make a new contact. They