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pulp of the tooth is at this time much larger than in the adult,
jand the danger of its exposure correspondingly increased.
Also, that the roots of the teeth are still incomplete, so that
the removal of the pulp and root filling is out of the question.
The pulp of the tooth must be saved alive or the tooth will
be lost. These considerations call for the most extreme care
in every detail. Broad cavities are no bar to successful treat-
ment. The pulps of these teeth are in less danger from ther-
mal sensitiveness and hyperemia than adult teeth. The wide-
open apical foramen gives less danger from strangulation
of the circulation and the pulps possess a greater power of
recuperation. When exposed they give a much larger per-
^centage of success in capping. Still it will be the general rule,
even with these, that pulps once fully exposed by decay will
be lost. The rule that the courage and endurance of the child
should not be broken down by any effort at conservative
treatment holds in these cases, as in all others, notwithstand-
ing the importance of the teeth under consideration.
Fortunately not very many cases are met with in which
the incisors are found decayed in persons so young. But a
few will be presented in every considerable practice, scatter-
ing along from eight to fourteen. All of these must be re^
garded as children and treated accordingly. But the greater
number of these cavities will be found in persons from fifteen
to eighteen years old. These patients will have more self-
control. The teeth are through the gums sufficiently so that
the rubber dam and the separator can be applied without un-
usual pain and the conditions for operating are in every way
^improved. There are not often found in the general conditions
sufficient reasons for temporary treatment. At this age the
patient will generally not have contracted mincing habits of
mastication unless it has been caused by the interference of
decay of the bicuspids and molars, and malleting will be rea-
sonably well borne. It should be remembered, however,
that our civilized habits of using the knife and fork for divid-
ing our food and passing it into the mouth robs our front
teeth of their legitimate function of dividing the food to
'such a degree that their peridental membranes are not pro-
portionately as strong as those of the back teeth. Also that
the direction of force required in condensing gold is gener-
ally more or less across the axial line of the tooth, and not

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