Page 102 - My FlipBook

88 METHODS OF FILLING TEETH.
much that I was compelled to the which was
decay destroy pulp,
exposed badly. This, however, gave me a better anchorage, and I
anticipated no trouble. Immediately after the pulp was removed, the
patient reported continuous and excessive pain at night. I did every-
thing to allay the mysterious suffering, and it was not till a week later
that she was able to assure me positively that it was the central incisor
which ached, and not the lateral incisor as we both had supposed. I
then reluctantly concluded that the of so much so near
presence gold
the pulp, even protected by the phosphate, had resulted in a pulpitis.
I drilled into the palatal side, entering the pulp-chamber, and after
considerable hemorrhage removed the pulp without resorting to
arsenical treatment. I am as as one can be that this was
positive pulp
not exposed even minutely, as we understand the term exposure.
That it was very nearly approached there was no doubt, and it is
plain now that it would have been better to destroy it, thus obtaining
a stronger anchorage for the filling and rendering the work far less

FIG. 72. FIG. FIG. 74.
73.

difficult. It was a case where a screw would have rendered the opera-
tion excessively tedious, because of the position of the cavity, which
was almost out of sight. It was a cavity the difficulties of which can-
not be appreciated from a description, even accompanied by the best
illustrations, and I introduce it only to show that the immediate
approach of gold to a pulp is a menace to the life of that organ. The
the disaster, because it was removed from
phosphate did not prevent
all the grooves and deepest parts of the cavity, that the filling might
be more secure, and it was in these that the
places gold approached
the pulp nearest. After the removal of the pulp all pain disappeared,
proving that this was the offender.
Where the approximal surface of an incisor has been only slightly
lost, many men, possibly because they lack a knowledge of tooth-
form, make no effort to restore contour. The eye of the true artist
finds no in what was the form of a
difficulty designating original given
decayed tooth, for he judges from what is left of the lines, and by
continuing these in his imagination has in his mind a picture of what
existed before the destruction. In Fig. 72 we observe a central in-
cisor the of which has been lost caries. I have
approximal portion by
seen many cases of this character filled so as to appear as seen in Fig.