Page 25 - My FlipBook

THE RELIEF OF PAIN 9

must bo ascertained, and suitable remedies applied,
when the neuralgic pain will usually cease.
In cases where several teetli have been filled, and
the patient cannot locate the pain in any one tooth
in particular, the diagnosis is again often difficult.
Tenderness of a tooth to pressure, or tenderness of
the gum over any particular tooth, or looseness of a
tooth, is sufficient evidence for the removal of a
filling.
In other cases the application of heat and cold
must be resorted to. To apply heat, make a ball-
ended steel burnisher, or the copper bulb of the
Evans' root-drier, very hot—or the hot-air S3a-inge
may be used ; while cold is conveniently applied by
holding a small ball of cotton-wool in the foil
carriers, spraying chloride of eth^d on to it until it
is covered with particles of ice, and then rapidly
applying it. If all the filled teeth are separately
tested in this way, one or other of them will usually
prove either more or less sensitive than the rest,
and the filling of this tooth should be removed, and
the conditions ascertained and treated.
Tapping the teeth with the handle of a steel
instrument is also useful; sometimes a tooth will
prove more tender than the others if tested in this
manner, and this is often a useful guide.
The above methods of diagnosis apply to cases