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FINISHING FILLINGS. 299

Fillings upon approximal surfaces are more diffieult to finish, and too
great care cannot be bestowed upon them. .:Vn operator is often judged
by the finish which he gives his approximal fillings, and justly so, as
no class of fillings requires a higher degree of skill in the finishing.
There is of necessity more or less overlapping of the gold in the
insertion of a filling, and the removal of all excess is as important as
any other part of the operation. For this purpose a great variety of
instruments is supplied. Files and gold trimmers, as shown in Figs.
Fig. 267.

Plug finishing files.
267 and 268, are best adapted. The cervical border is one which
should receive most careful attention. The gold should be filed and
dressed down until the finest excavator or probe will not catch when
drawn from the cervix toward the cutting edge. In addition to the
Fig. 268.

^^

Curved finishing files.
file and gold trimmer, strips of emery tape or sandpaper should be used
until all margins are well defined. The operator should have at hand
a great variety of these strips, some of extreme thinness and of various
grits, of emery, of silex, and of buckhorn.
When the filling has assumed the desired shape and all overlapping
gold has been removed, the final finish should be given with linen or