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MANAGEMENT OP PATIENTS. 153

MANAGEMENT OF PATIENTS.

In dentistry there is nothing more important than the devel-
opment of skill in the management of people in their sufferings,
or in so managing patients as to gain the opportunity to do that
which is necessary and best for them and to do operations in the
best way. A student came to me and complained that he could
not place the rubber dam for a lady in his chair, stating that
she could not bear to have it in her mouth. I went to the patient,
spoke a few encouraging words, and started to place the rubber
dam. There was some spasmodic retching, which I assured her
would pass away in a moment. Then I linished placing the dam
without apparent discomfort to her. There was nothing wrong
with the patient, except that she had come with a prejudice
toward the rubber dam that needed to be recognized and over-
come. Patients will have their little prejudices and notions that
interfere with their comfort and with the performance of neces-
sary operations for their benefit. The dentist should learn to
appreciate these quickly and develop the tact to smooth them
away. The management of these is not well within our power
to teach with any set of maxims or rules. Men of widely dif-
ferent temperament and trend of thought seem to manage people
equally well. But in all there is a feeling of profound respect
for people in suffering and an earnest desire to aid them, which
serves as the basis of thought and action. With such a basis,
and a careful study of mental states and qualities of mind, of
conditions and impulses that move men, or influence people's
thought, one should succeed. It sometimes seems to be more
important that the dentist should begin his professional work
with a well grounded notion of the humanities and of the psychic
nature of man than the devotees of any other profession. The
nature of his calling keeps him indoors — secludes him from the
more general social and semi-professional mixture with people;
he is confined with one patient at a time day after day. The
physician is going hither and yon, mingling with people socially,
semi-professionally or professionally continuously; he has the
opportunity of studying the psychic conditions in those whom
he meets tenfold more than the dentist. Yet the dentist needs
such information of people, and the impulses that move them to
action in this direction or that, that he will be able to read in
their actions the manner of approach that will influence the