Page 83 - My FlipBook

GOLD AS A FILLING-MA TERIAL. 69

given the best of everything, and the best is usually the highest
As a as is to tear from the book
priced. good way of cutting gold any
two or three leaves, with the foil between, and with sharp shears cut
both gold and paper. This avoids the unpleasant accident which fre-
when is cut
quently happens gold unprotected, where we find that it
sticks to the edges of the scissors. These strips should then be loosely
rolled into ropes, and cut into pellets suitable to the case for which
are this I need
they prepared. To illustrate how far I carry principle,
only say that I have cut a strip as narrow as one-tenth of the width
of the sheet, and have then made the no than their width.
pellets longer
I further state that this can be done so delicately that the pellets are
proportionately as pliable that is to say as loosely rolled as where I
used a third of a sheet, which is the maximum width to be resorted to.
With cavities
tiny pellets of this character I fill tiny ; those made with
the finest of rose burs, and which retain the because the bur is
filling
first in one direction and then in an A
dipped opposite. filling of this
kind may be smaller by far than the head of a pin, and yet have re-
quired a dozen or more pellets. I have more confidence in a filling
so made, than I would have in one made with a
single large pellet,
however dexterously manipulated, and however bright it may be made
to appear. I have seen a clinician fill teeth in this latter way, as a
"
demonstration of rapid work," and I have been impressed with the
idea that we should make subservient to
rapidity perfection .
There is an extreme danger which should be cautiously avoided
in using cohesive gold pellets. I think it is usually preferable to
fill undercuts with crystal, or some other of the plastic golds.
Where this is not done, the foil may be used, but care must be ob-
served in the direction now to be indicated. An undercut usually
produces a weakening of a neighboring wall. If a pellet be taken
which is much too large for the undercut, and is doubled on itself as
it is forced into the instrument being between the folds, the
place,
whole acts as a wedge, producing a strain against that wall. This ma^-
fracture it so that it breaks away, or it may crack it so slightly that
the accident may not be noted. Then, when decay creeps in, the
"
usual sermon may be preached : The tooth has decayed around my
but the is all It is well to be sure that the
filling, filling right."
plugger chosen can be driven to the bottom of an undercut without
danger, and then the pellet should be small enough to enter the space
without doubling, though large enough to jam slightly ; when so
placed, it may be driven home with the'plugger, which in this case is
not between the but behind it. The action is to compress the
gold,
between the
gold toward the bottom of the cavity, and not laterally
walls and the sides of the instrument. This caution to use small
pieces should be observed until the undercut is entirely filled. Another