Page 199 - My FlipBook
P. 199
"
HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY 167
find comparatively little attention paid to this branch, and not much
knowledge or method evinced in its treatment, ^vhen compared with the best
practice of the time in our own country.
Dr. Frank Abbott in "A Centennial Review of Operative Dentistry,"
read before the American Dental Association in 1876,^ quoted from John
Hunter (1778). If decay has reached the pulp chamber he would advise "that
the tooth be extracted and then immediately boiled to render it perfectly clean,
as well as to destroy an}- life there might be in it, and then that it be restored
to its socket ; this will prevent any further decay of the tooth, as it is now
dead and nut to be acted upon by any disease and can only suffer chemically
or mechanically."'
Stopping the cavity nuiy avail, he says, if resorted to in the early stages
of the disease. Gold and lend were the metals most employed for the pur-
pose. He says that in cases where so much of the tooth has gi\en away that
none of the stoppings would be retained, a small hole may be drilled in the
sound portion and after the tooth has been well stopped a small peg ma}^ be
put in the hole so as to keep in the lead, etc. Fo.x's work, published in 1806,
states that caries is a disease which it is not in our power to arrest by any
remedy whatsoever. As to stopping the teeth Fox says tliat in situations in
the sides or between the teeth the pressure of the food is liable to displace the
stopping and it requires frequent renewal.
Such extracts as these, made by Dr. Abbott, from old writers show \ery
strikingly the imperfect knowledge and inadeqate operations of that olden
time.
"The earliest recorded material for filling is lead, used in the form of
leaf. A piece being torn off, was rolled between the fingers into a ball or
pellet sufficiently large to more than fill the cavity after packing, and was then
forced into its place by one or two straight instruments, dressed off and
-
polished with a burnisher."
"The French word for "filling"' (plombage, literally leading) is derived
from its employment. Tlie form preferred was the sheets used to line the
chests in which tea was imported from China."
"Gold.—Harris says'" that gold was used as a filling in the early part of
the eighteenth century, but we have not been able to discover any mention of it
prior to that made by Fauchard, in third edition of his work (1785), book
1 Cosmos, Vol. XVIIT, pp. i^O.^-eOl.
' Desirabode, loc. cit.. p. 282.
^ Dictionary of Dental Science, p. 326.
HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY 167
find comparatively little attention paid to this branch, and not much
knowledge or method evinced in its treatment, ^vhen compared with the best
practice of the time in our own country.
Dr. Frank Abbott in "A Centennial Review of Operative Dentistry,"
read before the American Dental Association in 1876,^ quoted from John
Hunter (1778). If decay has reached the pulp chamber he would advise "that
the tooth be extracted and then immediately boiled to render it perfectly clean,
as well as to destroy an}- life there might be in it, and then that it be restored
to its socket ; this will prevent any further decay of the tooth, as it is now
dead and nut to be acted upon by any disease and can only suffer chemically
or mechanically."'
Stopping the cavity nuiy avail, he says, if resorted to in the early stages
of the disease. Gold and lend were the metals most employed for the pur-
pose. He says that in cases where so much of the tooth has gi\en away that
none of the stoppings would be retained, a small hole may be drilled in the
sound portion and after the tooth has been well stopped a small peg ma}^ be
put in the hole so as to keep in the lead, etc. Fo.x's work, published in 1806,
states that caries is a disease which it is not in our power to arrest by any
remedy whatsoever. As to stopping the teeth Fox says tliat in situations in
the sides or between the teeth the pressure of the food is liable to displace the
stopping and it requires frequent renewal.
Such extracts as these, made by Dr. Abbott, from old writers show \ery
strikingly the imperfect knowledge and inadeqate operations of that olden
time.
"The earliest recorded material for filling is lead, used in the form of
leaf. A piece being torn off, was rolled between the fingers into a ball or
pellet sufficiently large to more than fill the cavity after packing, and was then
forced into its place by one or two straight instruments, dressed off and
-
polished with a burnisher."
"The French word for "filling"' (plombage, literally leading) is derived
from its employment. Tlie form preferred was the sheets used to line the
chests in which tea was imported from China."
"Gold.—Harris says'" that gold was used as a filling in the early part of
the eighteenth century, but we have not been able to discover any mention of it
prior to that made by Fauchard, in third edition of his work (1785), book
1 Cosmos, Vol. XVIIT, pp. i^O.^-eOl.
' Desirabode, loc. cit.. p. 282.
^ Dictionary of Dental Science, p. 326.
