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204 THE TREATMENT OF TEETH
and the tannin paste was sealed up in them with
temporary gutta-percha. The patient was going
away to a boarding-school the next day, and was
instructed to present herself again on her return home
for the holidays, which she did ; the teeth were then
filled with hard gutta-percha, and the following year
with gold. The thinness of the labial walls ren-
dered it impossible to remove the whole of the
hardened but discoloured dentine, and consequently
the appearance of these teeth was not all that could
be desired. For this reason, and because the enamel
at the cutting edge of one of the teeth had become
chipped in mastication, the gold fillings were re-
moved in 1901, and the discoloration removed
with pyrozone. During the removal of the gold,
part of the labial wall of the tooth that had been
chipped at the cutting edge broke away, and this
tooth was filled with white cement. The other one
was refilled with gold. At the present time, Novem-
ber 1903, the white cement filling has just been re-
placed with a porcelain inlay. As the result of this
treatment of softened dentine the patient has two
live teeth that have been perfectly comfortable
from the time they were first treated, and no decay
has taken place either underneath the fillings or at
the margins. A complete removal of the decayed
dentine would doubtless have exposed the pulps,