Page 28 - My FlipBook

12 THE TREATMENT OF TEETH
it will also be necessary to cauterise and stimulate
the socket with creosote, carbolic acid, or nitrate of
silver. Burring out the socket, especially at the
apex, has been recommended in certain cases, but
the writer has never found it necessary to resort to
this, and the cases in which it is advisable may be
considered rare. A frequent cause of pain after
extraction is a rapid healing of the gum at the
orifice of the socket. This often causes the gum to
curl over the sharp edges, and practically stretch or
press itself tightly on to them.
In these cases the gum should be slit in several
places with small scissors, cauterised with nitrate of
silver, and kept away from the ragged edge of the
socket with cotton - wool and sandarach varnish.
The relief of pain in teeth which contain either
inflamed or dead pulps is often rendered difficult,
and sometimes impossible (unless extraction is
resorted to), owing to the formation of either
secondary dentine or pulp stones. In all cases,
therefore, where the pulp does not appear to be
exposed, and the application of the usual remedies
fails, the pulp - chamber must be drilled into if
possible, and if found to be filled up with secondary
dentine, it must be cut away until the orifices of the
root-canals are exposed. The presence of what are
known as pulp stones often causes severe pain.