Page 162 - My FlipBook

158 FILLING TEETH.

instrument of a wedge form into a filling with suffi-
cient force to condense the mass, there would be great
danger of breaking a weak wall of the cavity. The
principal pressure is lateral, and would consequently
come upon the side of the tooth.
In crown cavities of the molars where there is any
considerable inward expansion of the cavity, that

method of condensing would be wholly inefficient ; it
would not render the inner portion dense enough to
support the surface of the plug, and it would be

forced dowii, and necessarily be loose. In filling the
proximal cavities of the incisors, it is very objection-
able on account of the great liability of breaking the
inner and outer walls, which are usually quite thin.
In preparing the foil for filling, some operators tear
off the foil in irregular pieces, and form into little
balls or pellets, round and loosely rolled, correspond-
ing in size with the cavity to be filled. These pellets
are placed in the bottom, if a crown cavity, and at
one side, if a proximal cavity, and condensed with a
sharp-pointed instrument, attaching one pellet to

another till the cavity is full. This mode is not so
good as that previously referred to, unless the gold is
in a condition to weld perfectly; there is no con-
tinuous portion from the bottom to the orifice of the
cavity ; and the outer portions are liable to become
detached. Both of these methods of arranging the