Page 236 - My FlipBook

220 THE TREATMENT OF TEETH
deal of the diseased tissue may be scraped away
from the roots through an outer opening. The
writer has never amputated the end of a root, and
having had the two roots of a lower molar well
scraped in his own mouth after instrumental en-
largement of a fistulous opening, he hesitates to
subject a patient to the same treatment, and the
suggestion of a performance of these operations
under ether has the disadvantage of being objected
to by many patients who, strange to say, would not
object to extractions under this general anesthetic.
Many operators think it is unnecessary, and even
inadvisable, to postpone the filling of roots, providing
there is no flow of either blood or pus down them,
or the presence of any active state of inflammation
that will interfere with this operation. They trust to
mechanical cleansing, and to the use during and
immediately after this of some powerful germicide.
They consider the result to be quite as good, if not
better, than if the filling operation was postponed.
Others, on the contrary, hold that the dentine
has absorbed products of putrefaction, and can only
be sterilised by thoroughly soaking it with a germi-
cide, and that this cannot be accomplished at one
sitting. Tiiey are aware that the sealing of the
apex by root-filling, if thoroughly accomplished, will
prevent the passage of anything through it, and