Page 180 - My FlipBook

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my own experience, of the perfect success and great utility
of this operation, when well performed, but of this I shall
speak particularly when I come to notice the operation of
filing the teeth, its utility, and the indications for its perform-
ance, and the great injury of its injudicious performance,
which will be considered in a separate section hereafter.
The second stage in the progress of superficial caries, is
after the decay has passed through the enamel, and has pro-
duced some destruction in the bony substance of the tooth,
between the lining membrane and the enamel, but not so far
as to affect or implicate the lining membrane. The surgical
treatment and cure, in this case, consists in cleaning or cut-
ting out all the decayed portion of the tooth, and filling the
cavity with some metallic substance, as gold, silver, tin, or
lead, and a complete cure in this way may be obtained. This
operation, if well done, and the cavity filled with a suitable
substance, I believe I may venture to assert, is one of the
most effectual ever performed in surgery. The cure obtained
by it, if properly done, &c. is perfect, and the tooth becomes
as sound as it ever was, with the exception of the loss of
some part of its substance.
The proper manner of performing this operation, and the
substance most proper for filling the cavity of the tooth caused
by the decay, and its great utility, if well done, will form the
subject of a separate section in the operative part of this
work.
The third stage in the progress of simple caries which we
notice, is when it has proceeded so far as to implicate the
lining membrane and nerve of the tooth, in many instances
producing the tooth-ache, by exposing the nerve to the ac-
tion of those irritating causes which bring on inflammation of
the lining membrane. I shall not, in this chapter, take up the
consideration of odontalgia, (tooth-ache) but continue the