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274 FATHOLOGY OF THE HARD TISSUES OF THE TEETH.
and the danger of its exposure correspondingly greater. Also
that the roots of the teeth are still incomplete, making the
removal of the pulp and root filling out of the question. The
pulp of the tooth must be saved alive or the tooth will be lost.
These considerations call for the most extreme care in every
detail. Broad cavities are no bar to successful treatment. The
pulps of these teeth are in less danger from thermal sensitive-
ness and hyperemia than in adult teeth. Depth of decay is most
to be feared. The wide-open apical foramen gives less danger
from strangulation of the blood vessels, and the pulps possess a
greater power of recuperation. When exposed, they give a much
larger percentage of success in capping. The further growth of
dentin which is still fairly active on the wall of the pulp chamber
soon covers over such an exposure with dentin — if capping is
successful — making the cure complete and permanent. Still, it
will be the general rule even with these, that pulps once fully
exposed by decay will be lost. The rule that the courage and
endurance of the child should not be broken down by any effort
at conservative treatment holds in these Cases, as in all others,
notwithstanding the importance of the teeth under consideration.
Proximal surface decays, if lateral incisors, occur less fre-
quently than similar decays in the central incisors at so early
an age as eight or nine years. But cavities in these this early, or
correspondingly soon after their eruption when they are late in
their development, often present greater difficulty because of the
smallness of the teeth. The fact that they frequently overlap
the central incisors labially often causes broad cavities to occur
in their mesial surfaces. It is depth of decay, however, that is
most to be feared. In the management' of very early decays in
these teeth, it is especially important that the history as to the
time of their eruption, as compared with the centrals, should be
learned. The pulps of these teeth are very large as compared
with the size of the teeth soon after eruption, but grow smaller
quite rapidly. One or two years makes considerable difference
as to the danger of pulp exposure in cutting to a given depth, and
this is the important consideration in these early decays. The
irregularity in the time of the development of the lateral incisors
gives an uncertainty to their treatment that does not attach to
the centrals, and greater caution is necessary.
Fortunately, not very many cases are met with in which any
of the incisors are found decayed in persons so young as eight
or nine years. But a few will be presented in every considerable
practice, scattering along from eight to fourteen. All of these