Page 184 - My FlipBook

180 FILLING TEETH.

fine file and burnisher, the Scotch- or Arkansas-stone.
or corundum slips of the proper form, used with the
port-polisher, or very fine pumice should be employed
to remove the filemarks. The pumice may be applied
with water on a strip of chamois skin, a piece of

linen tape, or a stick of soft wood—the latter being
the most convenient, as it can be used with one hand
and shaped to suit any place or position.
After the stone or the pumice has accomplished its
work, and the filling has been thoroughly washed, a
fine burnisher, with a solution of castile soap, is em-
ployed to give the finish. The burnisher should be
of the best cast steel, and of high temper and fine
polish. Considerable skill is requisite to give the best
effect with the burnisher; it should pass smoothly

and gently over the surface, throughout its whole
extent, and in parallel lines, with a pressure neither
too light nor too heavy. It should also be applied
very thoroughly upon any portion of the tooth about
the border of the filling, that may have been cut by
the file or any other instrument. Indeed, quite as
much, if not more, care should be exercised upon
this as upon the plug itself: it should be polished as
smooth as the enamel, if possible; for the more nearly
perfect it is in this respect, the better will it resist
the action of the deleterious agents.

This method of finishing gives to the filling a per-