Page 221 - My FlipBook

better and easier handled than the silk floss. Take it in
the fingers in this way (demonstrating-) arid rub off the
proximate surfaces. It is a very simple matter to do it;
pass it into the interproximate space, bring it against the dis-
tal surface of the tooth, well under the gingivae, rub that back
and forth, brimging it out at the occlusal ; then against the
mesial surface of the next tooth, and so on around the arch.
Now, generally, it is a pretty dif^cult thing to get patients
to clean all of the proximate surfaces. If it is a full denture
there are sixty-four surfaces to clean ; it requires sixty-
four distinct motions to go around the arch and clean all
of these surfaces. A very simple matter, as you see, to
clean one or two or three, but to get the patient to clean
all of them and do it regularly is quite another matter.
It takes a little time, not very much ; but to form the habit
in such a way as to clean every proximate surface of the
teeth is a pretty difficult matter, and very few persons ac-
complish it completely for any considerable length of time.
Perhaps the use of toothpicks is the most common
method of cleaning proximate surfaces, but the toothpick, as
it is habitually used, removes only lodgments of food. With
the toothpick, however, the proximate surfaces may be
pretty thoronghly cleaned; microbic plaques that have been
formed upon these surfaces can be removed. I think for
this purpose the quill toothpick is much better than the
ordinary wooden toothpick. Nowadays machinery has been
made for making the wooden toothpicks and large facto-
ries are established for that purpose, and they are made
very cheaply indeed ; they run a log into one end of the
mill and it comes out at the other toothpicks put in boxes.
But most oi the wooden toothpicks that icome to us are cut
with a knife and they are not always as careful as they might
be to keep these knives well sharpened, and the result is that
they are not cut perfectly smooth. There is more or less
slivering of the wood in many of these factories, and we are
liable in using these toothpicks to leave little slivers of wood

in the gum tissue that do injury. I see a good many cases
of injury from this cause. There was one case in the in-
firmary the other day which I think was caused by the use
of a wooden toothpick, by forcing a piece of wood into
the peridental membrane between the tooth and its alveolar

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