Page 413 - My FlipBook

CAPPING THE PULP. 411

Capping the Pulp.
A prominent feature in the conservative treatment of the pulp is the
means to protect it from pressure, in agreement with the established
fact that there is no irritation so fatal to the normal functions of the
pulp as compression, and no condition from Avhich it recovers with so
much difficulty as this. Therefore all means directed toward its con-
servation must conform to the necessity of preventing the least degree
of compression. The means employed to prevent this form of disturb-
ance have given this method of treatment the common appellation of
^' capping the pulp."
Another principle of equal importance connected with the foregoing
is that the capping material should be brought into immediate apposi-
tion with the pulp. This is for the reason that if the least space be
permitted to exist between the capping and the exposed point this space
will fill with eflFused fluids, and the putrefactive changes which take
place in these fluids induce the formation of gases with consequent
•compression.
METHOD OF CAPPING.
Various methods of capping are practised, such as laying on the part
disks of paper or asbestos rendered antiseptic in various ways ; using
disks of paper coated on the side to be placed next the pulp with
^^
chloro-percha " or other plastic matter; flowing over the exposed
point a coating of oxysulfate or oxychlorid of zinc, being careful with
the latter to use a formula of the fluid element in which the zinc
chlorid is only in sufficient proportion in relation with the water that
the union with the zinc oxid is not active. In connection with this
method it has been common to mistakenly employ the strength of the
fluid wliicli is used when the formula is adapted for temporary fillings.
When this method is used the coating is flowed over or laid in a cap on
the pulp, and when somewhat " set " the cavity is temporarily filled
with a more resistant material laid upon it with great care.
AVith all the precautions which may be taken these dressings
are somewhat complicated and are not applicable to small cavities or
those difficult of access. In these cases the
writer has generally depended upon the use Fig. 391.
of a dressing composed of carbolic acid and
oil of cloves equal parts combined with zinc
oxid to form a plastic paste of such consist- Weston's dental cavity caps.
ence that when it is laid upon the pulp it will
yield as it is adapted to the part, without producing pressure, and will
flow out around the margins of the metal cap when this is used to con-
vev the dressinsj.