Page 348 - My FlipBook

346 COMBINATION FILLINGS.
Zinc phos])hato cement has many admirable qualities and is one of
the most valuable filling materials known. It is easily worked, its color
is good, its adhesiveness serves to bind tooth and filling together as the
stonemason's cement unites the blocks of granite that he piles one on
the other into one solid piece of masonry. As a tooth-saver it has no
equal ; but its one great defect, its solubility in the fluids of the mouth,
restricts, in a great degree, its usefulness when exposed to these fluids.
From this it will be easily understood why it is often desirable to
combine in one filling two or more difi'erent materials ; and it may be
said with truth that the operator who selects his filling materials with
the best judgment, and combines and uses them with the most skill,
will save the greatest number of teeth. There would be just as much
common sense and scientific reason for an electrician to make a dynamo
entirely of copper, or a watchmaker to use nothing but gold in making
a watch, as for a dentist to fill many of the cavities that come to him
with but one material.
It is an error to think that combination fillings are resorted to-
because more easily made than fillings of but one material, or that it
indicates a lack of skill on the part of the operator who makes and
recommends them. On the contrary, it is often much more difBcult to
make a suitable comliination filling than one of any single material ; and
the student will find that combination work will give ample opportunity
for the employment of all the skill and ingenuity he may possess.
Every operation must be made with the greatest amount of care and
attention to minute details, or the object sought will be unattained, and
the result be an inferior piece of work which will sooner or later cause
grief to the patient and chagrin to the operator.
It is impossible to describe all the combination fillings that have
been found advantageous and useful, therefore only some of the most
important will be considered in detail. The list is limited only by the
perverse manner in which teeth decay, and by the ingenuity of the ope-
rator to devise scientific and practical combinations to meet the cases
presenting.
It is to be understood in every instance in this chapter that the teeth
are in proper condition to be filled without further treatment. If pulp-
less, the roots are supposed to have been put in a healthy condition and
filled. In cases of exposed, or nearly exposed, pulps, they are supposed
to have been properly protected, and the teeth ready in every respect
for the mechanical operation of inserting the fillings.
Cement (Zinc Phosphate) and Amalgam.
In Simple Cavities.—This combination is of the greatest service in
saving badly decayed teeth that otherwise might have to be cut off and