Page 369 - My FlipBook

365

with Mr. Koecker, that in a great many cases the forceps
are preferable, but I believe every dentist will find cases,
where the key will be indispensable, as Mr. Koecker ac-
knowledges.
The forceps are the next instruments used after the key,
and they ought to be used when the dentist can extract the
tooth without the key. They should be made of different
sizes, straight and curved at their acting ends, so that we
may be able to apply them to any tooth we please, either the
upper or lower, front or back.

MANNER OF EXTRACTING THE TEETH.

Of Extracting the Tooth with the Key.*

The first step in every operation for extracting, is to divide
the adhering gum to the very edge of the socket ; this pre-
vents a laceration of the gum, and much facilitates the ope-
ration. I need not describe the different gum-lancets used
by dentists. They should be perfectly sharp, and made so
as to divide the gum all round the tooth, consequently differ-
ent shaped ones are required. The gum being divided, the
patient seated in a firm chair, the key having the bolster cov-
ered with a piece of patent lint, sponge, or the cornerof a pock-
et handkerchief, may be applied to the tooth, so as to firmly
embrace it, when with a steady turn of the instrument we
loosen the tooth ; at this instant give the bolster of the key a
perpendicular impulse, and the tooth instantly passes out of
the socket. A proper key, and used in this manner, is, I think.

* See Fox, pages 165 lo 168.