Page 225 - My FlipBook

PREPARATORY TO FILLING 209

isiiig pulps, and obtunding sensitive dentine. It is
sealed up in the cavity for about twenty-four hours.
This local anaesthetic has only recently been procur-
able m England, and the writer has not as yet had
sufficient experience with it to justify him in ex-
pressing an opinion as to its general usefulness.
It so far promises Avell, but its application has often
caused pain in the few cases in which he has used it.
The general method of destroying pulps is by
means of a minute application of arsenic. For
purposes of convenient application, as well as for
reducing pain that arsenic often causes, it is
usually applied in the form of a paste. It
might be presumed that a paste containing drugs
for the prevention of pain should be applied in
a sufficiently large quantity to effect this purpose,
A minute quantity of arsenic is sufficient to destroy
a pulp if it is amenable to arsenical destruction,
and a large quantity of arsenic will usually be
deleterious. But an equally minute quantity of
creosote, or sulphate of morphia, or cocaine, or what-
ever may be used in connection with the arsenic,
can have no effect in preventing or reducing pain.
If a small quantity of arsenic is mixed up with
a relatively large quantity of other ingredients in
a more or less liquid state, there is every risk of
some of the mixture being forced out on to the