Page 234 - My FlipBook

little fellow's confidence in that wa}^ and retain it afterward.
This is oif great importance in the management of a prac-
tice. We are very liable to neglect the Httle children ; feel
that operations for them are not of much consequence. But
children make men and their friendship tells in an after
practice. You will often have to do that for children that
will not seem to pay in dollars and cents ; often it is neces-
sary to spend time with them in which you do little or noth-
ing, time for which you will not feel like making a proper
charge. This is necessary in many cases. Often when a
child is first brought to me I will only temporize ; will not
try to do this or that operation that seems necessary at
the time, but do something to the mouth or to the teeth,
something that will lead the child to suppose that an opera-
tion has been successfully begun ; not something to deceive
the child, but something to gain the confidence of the child.
And right here let me say, never deceive a child. If you
are going- to hurt a child say so. A deception is fatal to
your after success, usually, with children. And do not allow
parents to deceive children in your office. Often the great-
est difficulty in the management of children is the manage-
ment of the parents. Parents have no business to deceive
their children with reg^ard to these operations. To tell a
child it will not be hurt and then inflict severe pain is doing
that child a wrong; it is lessening that child's confidence in
humanity; and child;ren ought to grow^ up with confidence
in the integrity and honesty of those about them.
Nov^, while the main difficulties in the management of
children's teeth are in the directions which I have indicated,
there are matters peculiar to the teeth at this age of which
we must take cognizance, and which I suppose you should
have obtained a knowledge of in the studies which you have
made of embryology and the development of the teeth.
They are mostly those conditions consequent upon the shed-
ding of the deciduous teeth and the development of the per-
manent teeth. Considered from this standpoint we should
regard all of those that are under fourteen or fifteen years
old as children; for the development of the permanent teeth,
exclusive of the third molars, which we may not consider,
is not complete until about that time.
I have brought some diagrams for the purpose of re-

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