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252 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES

stage, it is better to make use of the cauterizing iron. But in cases of
intense and persistent pain there is no other remedy than extraction.
4. Stopping of the carious cavity. Dionis does not enumerate this
operation among those intended for the preservation of the teeth. At
that period, this operation was performed solely with a view to pre-
venting the penetration into and the retention within the carious cavity
of alimentary substances, and the disadvantages caused thereby. The
carious process, says the author, often ceases altogether, and the pain then
generally ceases also. However, as the residual cavity often becomes
troublesome in various ways, among others by making the breath offensive,
it is better to stop it. For this purpose, gold or silver leaf is generally
made use of; but this mode of stopping is not durable, because gold or
silver in leaf is apt to become loosened and fall out. It is therefore pre-
ferable, says Dionis, to make a stopping with a piece of gold or silver
corresponding in size and shape to the cavity.^ Many, he adds, prefer
lead as a stopping, on account of its softness, whilst others simply
use wax.
The indications given by Pierre Dionis for using
5. The use of the file.
the file do not differ from those we find in other authors. Dionis warns,
however, against using the file to level down a tooth which has become
lengthened through the loss of its antagonist, for after a certain time it
would again project above the level of the others.
6. Extraction. This operation, says Dionis, ought not to be performed
too lightly, but only in those cases in which it is really necessary; that is,
when a tooth is the cause of insupportable pain and its crown is almost
entirely worn away; when nothing remains of a tooth but its root; when a
tooth is so loosened in its socket as to leave no hope of its again becoming
firm; when supernumerary teeth or irregularly planted teeth give rise to
inconvenience or deformity; and lastly, to remove deciduous teeth that
have become loosened. The opinion that if the loosened milk teeth be
not promptly extracted they cause the permanent teeth to grow irregularly,
is, however, considered by Dionis to be a prejudice.
Dionis strongly doubts whether a tooth that has been extracted and
replanted can really take root again, as had been afiirmed by Dupont,
Pomaret, and other authors. This shows that Dionis had had no expe-
rience on this point.
7. The applicatioti of artificial teeth. These teeth, says Dionis, are
generally made of ivory, but may also be made of ox bone, which is less
liable to turn yellow than ivory. He does not mention the use of hippo-
potamus tusks, hut we learn from him that one Ciuillemeau made arti-

' Here one- also verifies tin- al)sur(Iiri(S pronoiincccl by those who, not luing dentists, but
merely general praetitioiurs or surgeons, still risk s|h akiniz; on dental subjects.