Page 213 - My FlipBook
P. 213
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clusal and made an opening that the tongue discovers, or
that food lodges in. Now in such cases as these no man
should fail. The patients are older, they bear operations
better, the tendency to the recurrence of decay is almost nil,
all the conditions are more favorable for making operations
that are permanent. In fact, as I have told you before, any
kind of a filling that will stay will appear to protect the teeth.
A man doesn't deserve much credit for succeeding in these
cases, and yet it is important that he do his work well, be-
cause there may be returning susceptibility that will try even
these fillings severely. When persons have come on to adult
age and the expression of immunity is apparent in the mouth,
any tyro can make fillings that will be apparently successful.
That which tries the dentist is the making of fillings for the
very susceptible child, with a hereditary condition continuing
this susceptibility on to maturity ; that is what will try your
skill in the future.
rianagement of Patients.
In this work there is nothing more important to you
than the development of skill in the management of people,
in the management of patients, in gaining the opportunities
to do that which is necessary. Yesterday afternoon one of
your number came to me and said he had a patient for whom
he could not place the rubber dam. ''Why can't you?"
"Well, the patient can't bear it." Gentlemen, there isn't any
such word as "can't" in this. I went to the patient, spoke a
word or two, put on the dam, there was a little bit of retching
at first. "Just be quiet a moment; that will pass away."
Then I went on with the operation, without apparent dis-
comfort to the patient. Then I looked over the cavity, which
had been a very sensitive one, cleared it with a few strokes
and exposed the pulp ready for devitalization. There was no
particular trouble with that patient, except that she had come
with a notion. Patients come to operations with notions in
their heads ; they know a whole lot about what they can
bear and what they can't bear. The management of these
things we do not know how to teach. Indeed, if L should
undertake to teach this I should want to begin way back
in the first grade at the common school and keep it up from
that time on. These things you will learn by your associa-
20
clusal and made an opening that the tongue discovers, or
that food lodges in. Now in such cases as these no man
should fail. The patients are older, they bear operations
better, the tendency to the recurrence of decay is almost nil,
all the conditions are more favorable for making operations
that are permanent. In fact, as I have told you before, any
kind of a filling that will stay will appear to protect the teeth.
A man doesn't deserve much credit for succeeding in these
cases, and yet it is important that he do his work well, be-
cause there may be returning susceptibility that will try even
these fillings severely. When persons have come on to adult
age and the expression of immunity is apparent in the mouth,
any tyro can make fillings that will be apparently successful.
That which tries the dentist is the making of fillings for the
very susceptible child, with a hereditary condition continuing
this susceptibility on to maturity ; that is what will try your
skill in the future.
rianagement of Patients.
In this work there is nothing more important to you
than the development of skill in the management of people,
in the management of patients, in gaining the opportunities
to do that which is necessary. Yesterday afternoon one of
your number came to me and said he had a patient for whom
he could not place the rubber dam. ''Why can't you?"
"Well, the patient can't bear it." Gentlemen, there isn't any
such word as "can't" in this. I went to the patient, spoke a
word or two, put on the dam, there was a little bit of retching
at first. "Just be quiet a moment; that will pass away."
Then I went on with the operation, without apparent dis-
comfort to the patient. Then I looked over the cavity, which
had been a very sensitive one, cleared it with a few strokes
and exposed the pulp ready for devitalization. There was no
particular trouble with that patient, except that she had come
with a notion. Patients come to operations with notions in
their heads ; they know a whole lot about what they can
bear and what they can't bear. The management of these
things we do not know how to teach. Indeed, if L should
undertake to teach this I should want to begin way back
in the first grade at the common school and keep it up from
that time on. These things you will learn by your associa-
20
