Page 251 - My FlipBook

CHAPTER X.

THE SELECTION OF FILLING MATERIALS WITH REFER-
ENCE TO CHARACTER OF TOOTH STRUCTURE, VARIOUS
ORAL CONDITIONS AND LOCATION, DEPTH OF CAVITY
AND PROXIMITY OF THE PULP—CAVITY LINING, WITH
ITS PURPOSES.

By Louis Jack, D.D.S.

The general object in view in the filling of a prepared cavity is to
secure the future preservation of the tooth at that part from the recur-
rence of caries. This involves a consideration of the character of the
material to be used, in relation to its adaptability to the conditions of
age, the quality of the teeth, and the oral conditions which for the time
are an expression of the general state of the organism. The habits of
the patient as to general care of the teeth also have some bearing upon
the proliability of permanence of the reparative operation, A material
adapted to preserve the teeth when they are of resistant quality and
when the general health is sound and the care good, may be out of
place when the opposite conditions exist. Methods of procedure have
some bearing upon the result, and the influence of these has also to be
kept in view.
The general characteristics of the material to be used as a pre-
servative of tooth structure are of importance in the following order :
Resistance to chemical action
;
Capability of adaptation to the surface of the cavity
;
Sufficient hardness to withstand the force of mastication and i\\Q con-
sequent attrition.
Capability of form and smoothness are also important in relation to
cleanliness, which more than any other indirect influence has the greatest
bearing upon the preservation of the margins from subsequent softening,
as will further appear.

The Materials.
The various accepted materials in use are : gold, tin, amalgams, the
basic oxid cements, gutta-percha.
Tlie first three named may be designated as permanent in their cha-
249