Page 252 - My FlipBook

the cavities by chipping away the enamel with very Httle pain
to the child, and then smooth up the margins and leave the
cavity as wide open as possible, and removing only the
outer portions of the decayed material, treat them with
silver nitrate. Or, we may fill these with cement or with
gutta-perclTa if we can excavate sufficiently. In these
cases gutta-percha is often an excellent material to
use. Sometimes we will be able to make gutta-percha
fillings stand during the life of these teeth when
the cement fillings wiasb out badly, and also they can
be made to look pretty well. We used to get gutta-percha
filled with oxide of zimc that was very excellent for this
purpose. It was very expensive, however, and I am told
was very difficult to manufacture ; a little too much heat
in working the oxide into the gutta-percha would ruin the
whole mass. Lately I haven't seen this preparation in tb''
miarket, but instead of it we have a white gutta-percha, so^
called, that is a mixture of wax and gutta-percha. Thi'C
material seems tO' me unfit for any use ; certainly it is unfit
for anything Hke permanent filling. The red base platp-
gutta-percha seems now to be the best thing that we hav*".
and when one has learned to manipulate it fillings are mad*^
quickly and easily. Of course, its manipulation in these little
teeth is the same as the manipulation in the teeth of adults.
By sticking it to the walls oif the cavity with eucalyptol o^
cadjuput— ^the eucalyptol is to be preferred—we may make
fillings that are moisture tight ; and if too much wear does-
not come upon them they will stand well and prevent far-
ther decay. Of course, it doesn't look as well in the front
teeth as a white filling- would; yet it looks better than the
blackened surface produced by the use of silver nitrate,
and loir that reason is to be preferred. But of course, in
using this material, the excavation, the most painful pro-
ceeding, is required.
The treatment of decays in the occlusal surfaces of deciduous
molar teeth is often a very difficult proceeding. In these
v;^e sihould not care particularly for the color, and we may use
any of these materials without the color objection that
pertains in the incisors. In these cavities, if we obtain con-
trol of the child before the decays are very large, we may
break away the enamel from about the cavity, open it as

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