Page 9 - My FlipBook

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The preparation of a text-book upon Operative Dentistry, com-
posite in its authorship, was regarded by the Editor as a tentative
experiment the vahie of which could only be determined by the test
of practical experience. The cordial reception of the work by dental
teachers and its extensive use by students afford encouraging evidence
that a work so planned and executed was needed.
The increasing tendency to specialization in dentistry has rendered
still more remote the possibility of adequately presenting the entire
field of operative dentistry through the medium of a single volume
of individual authorship; hence the composite method, whereby the
several departments are set forth by experts in each case, seems likely
to afford the most generally satisfactory result.
The Editor is fully aware of the importance which attaches to the
work of harmoniziug the treatment of the individual subjects and of
so coordinating them that conflicting views shall not confront the stu-
dent, and thus interfere with his advancement into an untrodden field
;
a recognition of this factor has served as a guidiug motive both in the
preparation and the revision of the work.
Specialization in operative dentistry has not reached the point where
it may be deemed best to limit the field of text-book treatment to its
technical procedures and relegate the allied subjects to separate vol-
umes ; hence the chapter upon Dental Embryology has been retained
and the subject extended to include so much of Dental Histology as
bears directly upon operative procedures, and it is anticipated that the
admirable chapter by Professor Xoyes will prove an acceptable addi-
tion. The chapter upon Porcelain Inlay work has been rewritten in
the light of the most recent developments of that rapidly progressing
field of study. The formal treatment of Asepsis and Antisepsis, which
is the basis of an added chapter by Professor Truman, needs no
apology; the importance of a thorough appreciation of the role played
by oral bacteria in the causation and transmission of disease is self-
evident, as a recognition of the bacterial factor in oral conditious has
become a nine qua non of successful dental practice. In the jireseut
edition the text has been thoroughlv revised, a larg-e number of illus-
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