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HOW TO CONDENSE GOLD. 79
have served us well and will continue to do so, if we patiently and
conscientiously apply ourselves to the acquirement of skill. I do
use and
occasionally gold platinum, and I have indicated where, when,
and why I do so. Tin and gold does not appeal to me, because in the
first place the want which it is supposed to fill does not in my opinion
exist. It is said to last well where gold fails at the gingival margin.
I have touched upon this subject before, and here will only state that
I think failure at the gingivai border is due to faulty manipulation,
rather than to material. Certainly I should doubt that tin and gold
would succeed where gold had failed. I made the statement once,
before an advocate of this method, that I had never inserted a tin and
but that I had taken out a number of them, and
gold filling, quite
they were not of that consistency described in written reports, that,
had utter failures. The to whom I am
in fact, they proven gentleman
is a and skillful
alluding prominent operator, widely known, and has
given many clinics upon this method. At this time he was filling a
tooth while I looked on. In reply to my remark, he said that if I
had taken out tin and gold fillings they must have come from the
hands of poor operators, or at least men unskilled in this particular
method. Of course to this I could say nothing. The patient for
whom he was working was the office assistant of a dentist, a friend of
mine, and I had thus a chance to learn the result in this very case.
Within one year the tin and gold filling was leaking so badly that the
tooth ached, so that it was removed and replaced with gold, which
is still doing good service. I believe that a practitioner may be
serve all of his with-
thoroughly successful, and satisfactorily patients,
out any knowledge whatever of tin and gold in combination.
Gold and Iridium. This is a combination not manufactured, but
procurable upon order. It is a piece of iridium placed between two
of what
layers gold, and then the three rolled into one, producing
looks like heavy gold. It is very hard, and so difficult to manipulate
that it barely deserves mention. The gold and platinum will serve
for which this last combination was
every purpose designed.
How to Condense Gold. What we term "hand-pressure" is the
first principle of packing and condensing gold into a cavity. It has
several advantages over malleting, and some distinct disadvantages.
Consequently it is rarely proper to depend upon it alone, and I might
almost say the same of the exclusive use of the mallet. A dentist
should be competent to employ all methods, and discriminating enough
The
to know how to alternate them to advantage. greatest good
is that the remains more cohesive under
gained by hand-pressure gold
this method than in connection with any other. I am not prepared
to discuss the physics of this phenomenon, but it is a fact long ago ob-
served by me clinically, and I have sufficiently tested it to feel safe in