Page 631 - My FlipBook

CHAPTER XXI. (Continued).
EXTRACTION OF TEETPI UNDER NITROUS OXID
ANESTHESIA.

By J. D. Thomas, D. D. S.

Where the operation would cause excessive pain, the extraction of
a tooth without the aid of an anesthetic is to-day little short of bar-
barous. It is cruel to the patient, and if the subject be a child,
wantonly so. Very few people can submit to the operation without
more or less physical resistance, and even though this be involuntary
no operator can do full justice in such a case, no matter how skillful he
mav be. kSucli resistance causes more or less unnecessary strain to be
applied in one direction or another against the process, which results in
increased inflammation as a sequence. Besides, as a rule the liability
of breaking the tooth or portions of the alveolar plate or other accidents
is increased a hundredfold.
Nitrous oxid is in all respects the very best anesthetic for the pur-
poses of the dentist. Properly used, it is almost entirely free from
danger and is rarely productive of nausea or depression as an after-
effect, even temporarily. It seldom requires over sixty seconds to pro-
duce anesthesia, and in less than that period of time the patient is
fully recovered, with no knowledge of the operation, and is ready to
depart as soon as bleeding ceases. To accomplish such a result, of
course, requires experience and some degree of dexterity, but the con-
ditions are such that any dentist with a fair amount of experience can
operate successfully with it for the removal of from one to four or five
teeth, and perhaps more—the main essential in operating by the aid of
nitrous oxid being to utilize every second of time during the period of
anesthesia, and not to waste it in hunting forceps or deciding how they
should be used.
The best success is o1>taincd by formulating a system of working by
which one can accomplish the most in the shortest space of time. The
operating period seldom extends over forty-five seconds and often less,
so that every second wasted in any way whatever is so much time lost,
and success is diminislied to just that extent.
Nitrous oxid must be absolutely jiurc, and if l)e kept over water it
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