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CHAPTER XV.
RESTORATION OF TEETH BY CEMENTED INLAYS.
By Joseph Head, D. D. S., M. D.
Strictly speaking, the term inlay may be applied to any substance
placed in a tooth cavity, but custom has restricted this term to fillings
inserted as one piece.
In primitive times teeth were filled by driving a solid piece of lead
into the cavity gum mastic was also used in the same way ; and the
;
green stone inlays in the central incisors of a human skull discovered
at Copan, Honduras, probably antedate all historical record.
Before describing the construction of inlays it may be well to con-
for if they have no superi-
sider their advantages and disadvantages ;
ority over other fillings to counterbalance their inherent defects, inlays
are without excuse for existence.
Let us, therefore, first consider the main characteristics of the per-
fect filling ; and then by a comparative table of other filling materials
the good and bad points of each may be justly examined.
The characteristics of an ideal fiUing may be stated as follows
1. Resistance to wear of mastication.
2. Resistance to action of oral fluids.
3. Harmony of color.
4. Exclusion of bacteria, and preclusion from growth of those that
enter the margin.
5. Non-conductivity of heat.
6. Manipulation easy to patient.
7. Manipulation easy to operator.
8. Manipulation not destructive of healthy tooth structure.
By a study of the table on page 370 cohesive gold will be seen to pos-
sess over all other materials the sole, though imjiortant, superiority of
greatest edge strength and resistance to the crushing force of mastication.
True, it excludes bacteria from the cavity ; but experience proves that
if the edges of a cohesive gold filling begin to leak and admit micro-
organisms, the gold seems to be almost entirely lacking in the antiseptic
power possessed by tin, amalgam, gutta-percha, and the cements. And
24 ?.li!)
CHAPTER XV.
RESTORATION OF TEETH BY CEMENTED INLAYS.
By Joseph Head, D. D. S., M. D.
Strictly speaking, the term inlay may be applied to any substance
placed in a tooth cavity, but custom has restricted this term to fillings
inserted as one piece.
In primitive times teeth were filled by driving a solid piece of lead
into the cavity gum mastic was also used in the same way ; and the
;
green stone inlays in the central incisors of a human skull discovered
at Copan, Honduras, probably antedate all historical record.
Before describing the construction of inlays it may be well to con-
for if they have no superi-
sider their advantages and disadvantages ;
ority over other fillings to counterbalance their inherent defects, inlays
are without excuse for existence.
Let us, therefore, first consider the main characteristics of the per-
fect filling ; and then by a comparative table of other filling materials
the good and bad points of each may be justly examined.
The characteristics of an ideal fiUing may be stated as follows
1. Resistance to wear of mastication.
2. Resistance to action of oral fluids.
3. Harmony of color.
4. Exclusion of bacteria, and preclusion from growth of those that
enter the margin.
5. Non-conductivity of heat.
6. Manipulation easy to patient.
7. Manipulation easy to operator.
8. Manipulation not destructive of healthy tooth structure.
By a study of the table on page 370 cohesive gold will be seen to pos-
sess over all other materials the sole, though imjiortant, superiority of
greatest edge strength and resistance to the crushing force of mastication.
True, it excludes bacteria from the cavity ; but experience proves that
if the edges of a cohesive gold filling begin to leak and admit micro-
organisms, the gold seems to be almost entirely lacking in the antiseptic
power possessed by tin, amalgam, gutta-percha, and the cements. And
24 ?.li!)
