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FILLING TEETH 107

of his methods causes numbers of piitionts to for-
sake him for less thorough but more humane
practitioners. The dentine is sometimes exces-
sively sensitive, and even if patients can screw
themselves up to bear the operation, its proper
performance may cause an amount of suffering and
shock that — particularly in the case of delicate
patients—it is better to avoid.
Fortunately, these excessively sensitive teeth are
not met with every day, and in contradistinction,
there are some patients whose teeth can be freely
cut into in all directions (avoiding the pulp) with-
out causing them the slightest pain.
An experienced dentist readily ascertains the
temperament of his patient, and it is distinctly
advisable, and of the greatest benefit to the patient,
to work accordingly. It is useless to so worry a
patient to fill one tooth, that he or she acquires a
dread of the dental chair, and can never be per-
suaded to submit to another operation, gradually
allowing all the teeth to be lost through neglect.
Whether a patient's teeth are really very sensitive,
or whether he or she is simply intolerant of slight
pain, or even inconvenience, has practically the
same effect in deciding the wise dentist that gold
fillings are inadvisable in these cases. In the
former case it is much more humane to use other