Page 227 - My FlipBook

the ends of the pads the register will be a Httle more than
the proper number of pounds. The difference that can be
made in this amounts to very nearly lo per cent, so that
the instrument is not as accurate as an ordinary pair of
scales, but it is as accurate as it seems now possible to
make an instrument, because we cannot make an instru-
ment upon which we catch with precise accuracy. I see
no more reason for questioning- these instruments than I
would have for questioning the apothecary who weighs out
a prescription for me, or questioning the weights of a man
who weighs a load of hay upon hay scales. Of course, we
know that there is sometimes some sculduggery in regard
to weights ; that scales are purposely made to register
wrongly. I don't think anyone would intentionally accuse
me of that ; I should feel sorry if they did ; and why per-
sons should not believe these instruments is a mystery to
me. If large numbers of these instruments were manufac-
tured they could be made so cheaply that every dentist could
own one, and it is a very ijnportant instrument for testing
the bite of patients who come to us. I have used it in
my practice for years in this way and I know something
of what can be done in the training of patients in the chew-
ing of food. Now, what is the result if the mastication is
imperfect? A friend of mine was telling me a few days ago
that in a certain clinic in a dental society a patient was
presented to him for a large mesio-occlusal filling in a mo-
lar. Without such an examination as he would usually
make he placed on the rubber dam and went to work, as
men will sometimes do in a clinic. He found the patient
a very good patient ; it was a large cavity ; he excavated
it rapidly without undue complaint, but at the first stroke
of the mallet upon the tooth in condensing the filling the
patient flinched and soon began to complain. Said he, '*I
remarked to those standing around that I had been care-
less and didn't examine the occlusion before I put on the rub-
ber dam, and there is no occlusion." Well, others had been
as careless as he and considerable interest was manifested
at once as to whether there was an occlusion and why he
supposed there was no occlusion. He went on with the
operation, however, to completion, and as soon as the rub-
ber dam was removed there were a number looking quickly

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