Page 344 - My FlipBook

342 PLASTIC FILLING MATEIUALS.

Temporary Stopping.
Preparations of this name are coin])ounds of 2:utta-percha with
various substances added to lessen the temperature of softening.
As procured from the manufacturer tliey are of two varieties, the
adhesive and the non-adhesive—or, to be more precise, the less adhesive.
The former preparations, the adhesive, are usually made of gutta-j^ercha
(generally the pink base plate). Burgundy pitch, white wax, and chalk
or zinc oxid. In the non-adhesive varieties the Burgundy pitch is omitted.
The latter varieties are usually made of a pink color, to furnish a safe-
guard against mistaking a filling of temporary stopping for one of gutta-
percha.
As the name implies, they are designed for temporary use, retaining
dressings in teeth, to maintain space between teeth which have been
wedged apart, until the attendant pericementitis subsides ; to press away
gum tissue overhanging the margins of a cavity ; to fill excavated cav-
ities for a few days.
Unlike gutta-percha, most of these preparations cannot be permitted
to remain for a prolonged period ; they usually become offensive, par-
ticularly so when the hygiene of the mouth does not receive proper
attention. To maintain space and press away gum tissue they are used
as gutta-percha ; their lower heat of softening permits their application
close to the pulp of a tooth without the painful response associated with
placing hot gutta-percha in the same position. A prominent use of the
material is the sealing of arsenical applications in teeth.
As with any other material, it is necessary, in order to have the
minimum of pain, to make the application and manipulate the stopping
so that no pressure shall be exerted upon the pulp. Temporary stop-
ping is inferior to zinc phosphate for this purpose, as the latter may be
flowed into a cavity and over an arsenical application without causing
the slightest pressure.
Should the cavity of decay extend to or beyond the gum, a small
conical piece of the temporary stopping should be softened and packed
carefully against the cervical margin and gum, to act as a guard to the
latter against contact with the virulent irritant arsenic trioxid. The
arsenical paste on a minute pledget of cotton is laid upon the exposed
pulp—if the latter be hypersensitive, beside it—and the remainder of
the cavity and interdental space are filled with one very soft piece of
temporary stopping.
Temporary stopping, in cones, has been used as a canal filling (see
Cliapter XA^II.) and as a filling for the bulbous portion of pulp
chambers.
Another important use of the material is the sealing of the occlusal
cavities of teeth which are under treatment for septic pericementitis.