Page 151 - My FlipBook

BICUSPIDS.
137
than the gold and platinum, and in the cuspid, where we have a point
and two slanting planes, the force of mastication is much less injurious.
A in the of a
good gold filling edge cuspid will do faithful service in
comparison with gold and platinum in the incisors of the same mouth.
Where the end of a cuspid has been worn off square by abrasion,
the one to be noted here is that the tooth is not to be
point specially
restored to its original shape by reproducing the point. Occasion-
ally it may be necessary to produce a general effect by forming slightly
rather than to make a
slanting planes perfectly square end, but ordin-
arily it will be best to simply fill the concavity flush with the highest
of enamel the material over the enamel as a
point remaining, extending
protection. Here, of course, as with the abraded incisors, we must
use and for the teeth are now
gold platinum, occluding squarely end
to end most of the time, if not always.
I now to and in
pass bicuspids, doing so I cross that line which by
some has been erected as a point beyond which it is permissible to fill
teeth with gold or with amalgam, according to the pocket-book of the
I have said that a consideration is an un-
patient. already money
scientific standpoint from which to choose a filling-material. Yet I
must recognize this line, or at least the territory on one side of it.
Nothing would tempt me to fill any incisor or cuspid with amalgam,
except in rare cases where the cavity extended under the gum in such
a w~ay that my judgment should indicate that gold would fail. Con-
sequently in crossing the line I must admit that I enter the domain of
amalgam. Yet even just across the border I do not yet meet amal-
gam, for I cannot remember to have used it to any extent in the mesial
surface of a first bicuspid.
The minute crown cavities found at the extremities of the sulci in
when found in the mouths
bicuspids are extremely important, especially
of young persons. Nothing is easier than to fill these, yet it is an
uncommon thing to see them filled properly. What is the reason of
this ? It will be profitable to discuss it a moment. A well-dressed
young miss of fourteen to sixteen, let us say, is brought into the office
for an examination. The mirror alone shows large cavities in all four
of the sixth-year molars, for the parents, though well bred, stupidly
"took them for temporary teeth." Smaller cavities of a similar na-
ture are seen in the twelfth-year molars. Frequently the operator
stops his examination at this point, because he has found enough to
begin with. He tells the parent that the child has been brought in
' ' would have
in the nick of time, for in a few weeks the pulps probably
been exposed in one or two teeth." He therefore chooses the worst
and makes a start. Perhaps, after all, a pulp is exposed, which means
destruction and all the trials and tribulations which follow. Event-
a is made at the other teeth, and if an excava-
ually superficial glance