Page 261 - My FlipBook

EXPOSED PULPS. 257 ;

preservation of the pulp, when the circumstances
will warrant; or when they will not, then its
destruction. The former of course is always to be
preferred, where practicable. Some of our best opera-
tors very strongly denounce the wholesale destruction
of the pulps of teeth, practised by many ; while some
dentists never attempt to restore them to health at
all, however slightly diseased. This, as elsewhere
intimated, is erroneous practice ; for there is no obvi-
ous reason why the pulp of a tooth may not be re-
stored from disease to health as readily as other parts
endowed, as it is, with circulation, nutrition, absorp-

tion, and the distribution of nerves. The particular
kind of treatment required in any given case, how-
ever, will be controlled by various circumstances;
such as the nature and extent of the disease; whether
it is of chronic or acute type ; and when the irrita-
tion, or inflammation, is but slight, and is kept up
solely by the contact of irritating substances, restora-

tion of the pulp may be effected by a removal of these
irritating causes, and a protection of the pulp against
their further influence : in such case, nature, unaided,
effects the restoration. In default of a vigorous con-
stitution, the pulp, though but slightly affected, will
require topical therapeutic treatment ; and meanwhile
general treatment may be employed to give increased
tone to the system. In the local treatment, neutral-