Page 27 - My FlipBook

wise to put yourself rather in an awkward position at the be-
ginning with a new patient, rather than be fussing about the
chair, fixing it, etc. After you have proceeded a Httle and find
that the position isn't suitable to you, just quietly put the
chair in the position required and go ahead.
I want to impress upon you the importance of pursuing
some regular order in the examination of the teeth for caries.
There is one important point to be attained, and that is that
your order of procedure be such as to bring your instruments
in contact with every surface of every tooth that is liable to
decay. If the order of procedure is such as to do this I do
not care much as to the particular form of the order. You
should have a particular order as to what surfaces of the
teeth you examine first, second, third, and so on, and examine
them completely before going to other surfaces, as the rule.
A few very good operators, however, will examine each tooth
in order, examining each tooth completely in the first in-
stance, beginning at a certain place and passing around the
arch in a certain order and finishing at a certain place. This

is all right, but I prefer to examine particular surfaces in
order. For the occlusal surfaces, which I would examine
first, we need, usually, only the explorer with a single curve.
The occlusal surfaces are the ones that decay first in chil-
dren or young people that come to us. For this examination
I prefer that my patient sit upright in the beginning, and will
begin with the lower jaw, opening the mouth sufficiently. You
may or may not use the mouth mirror to increase the Hght.
Then you will begin with the occlusal surfaces of the bicus-
pids and pass your instrument over those surfaces with the
eye following, and examine the occlusal surfaces back to the
third molar, if it is in place. Begin upon the left side, gen-
erally, for in that examination you stand rather behind the
patient. In this position the light from an ordinary window
will be about right, or sometimes you may w^ant the head
thrown a Httle more forward if the window is low^ so that the
light will come onto the teeth easily (demonstrating). Then
changing the position a little by throwing the chair back and
exposing the upper teeth by tilting the head further back, you
will pass the explorer over the occlusal surfaces oi the teeth on
the right side, usually from the distal to the mesial — you will
find it easier to do it in that way, while upon the other side

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