Page 32 - My FlipBook

Position of the Patient in the Chair.

There is a good deal of misunderstanding as to the ob-
ject of raising and lowering a chair. The rule should be that
the patient's head should be in about the same position for
each operator, relatively to his height, and it is necessary to
have chairs made to raise and lower in order to fit them to
the operator, because some dentists are long and some den-
tists are short. The head should be about level with the el-
bow or the middle upper arm of the operator ; never higher
than the middle upper arm and almost never lower than the
elbow. But we want the head thrown back and the head
thrown forward, and you will note that when the chair is
thrown forward the head is very much higher than when the
chair is thrown backward, and we raise and lower the chair to
get the head in the right position. Now, the head is too high
in this position (demonstrating). (Lowering the chair.) This
brings the head pretty high, but in a position in which it is
fairly easy to operate. Now, if I raise the chair up a good
deal I will not only have a position in which it is more difift-
cult to see my operation, but I am holding up my arms during
the whole of the time. Now some of you try holding your
arm out horizontally for twenty minutes and see how tired
you will become ; the same thing occurs with the endeavor to
operate with the arms up ; in the endeavor to operate with the
arms up you become tired out. If, on the other hand, you
undertake to operate with the patient considerably too low,
you have to stoop and will become tired out. It isn't alto-
gether a matter of convenience as to whether or not you have
your patient in an easy position for yourself; it is a matter of
good operating as well. One who endeavors to operate in a
bad position becomes tired and does not do his operation
well ; he makes poor operations because he is tired, and you
will find it a rule that the man who continues to operate in a
bad position for himself will inevitably drop into careless
work and do himself discredit. It is not only a matter of
convenience, then, but it is a matter of good operating. Now,
many persons begin in this way or that, assume improper
positions at the chair, and, to their mind, it seems to be the
easiest position, but it is not. It is a matter of accustoming
oneself to this position or that position, in order that it may
seem the better position for him. A faulty position, then,
will injure a man's operating very seriously.

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