Page 89 - My FlipBook

MANIPULA TION OF HEA IT FOIL.
75
There is no objection to this where the operator has acquired the neces-
sary skill. The beginner, however, will find it unsatisfactory, because
it is difficult. In fact, heavy foil is the most troublesome of all golds
with which to fill teeth. It must be remembered that it is the least
and therefore we see that it will be found most un-
pliable, readily
yielding in the hands of one who resorts to it for the first time. It
must follow, then, that the less of it the operator has to contend with
the more will he be to succeed. There is also a
likely strong objec-
tion to using the gold in long strips. It will frequently be found
that it does not turn over so as to assume the direction desired. Then
when it is forced into proper position an angle is crimped up, which
when malleted down forms a hill, and is very resistant besides. I
therefore think it best to abandon the as I would the
strip, rope,
and rely upon pieces not much, if any, longer than the cavity. Of
course there is not much
objection to making one fold with it. Here,
then, as with all the other forms of gold, I advocate small pieces.
It may seem that this makes a man a slow operator, but in the first
it is better to be than
place thorough rapid ; secondly, thoroughness
does not mean slothfulness ; and
necessarily thirdly, it is a fact that
these methods may be followed and yet result in rapid w ork. Even
r
if it did not, the pleasure of seeing fillings five and ten years old, with
beautiful smooth surfaces, will repay for the outlay of time, patience,
and conscientiousness.
As with other golds, I prefer small points in packing the heavy foils,
and certainly the foot-plugger is at its worst when we are using rolled
gold. Except \vhen using a burnisher as described, it is a difficult and
slow r process to pack it by hand. Better and more rapid work results
with a mallet, and better still where the mallet is one with rapid
stroke, as the electric or the engine mallet.
Before leaving this I will point out one disadvantage of heavy foil.
Being of a single layer, it is difficult with it to alter the form of the
surface against which it is packed. For example, suppose that in
and the walls of a cavity the center is left some-
following covering
what hollow. If now we begin to add heavy foil, the hollow will
not be materially filled up. The best plan is to alternate with pellets,
placing a pellet in the hollow, packing it, then using the heavy foil,
then another and so on till the hollow is filled flush, when we
pellet,
may continue with the heavy foil alone, till the whole is completed.
Another thing to be carefully guarded against is to allow a piece of
heavy foil to become rumpled or crinkled when placing it between
teeth. It will be found doubly resistant in such cases, and so stiff
that a good result is hardly attainable. Use it smooth.
Gold in Combination with Oxyphosphate. I come now to the de-
teeth which in proportion to its value
scription of a method of filling