Page 279 - My FlipBook
P. 279
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EXPOSED PULPS. 275
cleansed and dried, and a portion of dry floss silk or
cotton introduced loosely into the canal. Then close up
the decayed cavity with adhesive wax, gutta-percha, or
some other substance that will effectually exclude the
moisture ; let it remain thus from twelve to twenty-
four hours; then open the cavity, and withdraw the
silk or cotton, and if this is found free from moisture
and odor, the tooth is ready to be filled.
The treatment just described will be sufficient for
all cases in which the pulp has been destroyed by the
operator. But teeth whose pulps are already dead,
would seem to be less difficult of treatment and fill-
ing; yet such is not the case;—indeed, the therapeutic
treatment of these is usually more protracted, and
their diseased condition less easily controlled ; and
this because of the fact that the decaying pulp, re-
maining in the canal, becomes very offensive and
irritating to the living parts adjacent, in which it
induces a chronic diseased condition, frequently in-
volving the dentine along the walls of the canal in
decomposition.
A classification of these teeth, based on their con-
ditions, might be somewhat auxiliary to a further
examination of this subject; and the following will
probably embrace them all :
1st. Those whose pulps are dead, but their attach-
ment and adjacent parts alive and healthy.
EXPOSED PULPS. 275
cleansed and dried, and a portion of dry floss silk or
cotton introduced loosely into the canal. Then close up
the decayed cavity with adhesive wax, gutta-percha, or
some other substance that will effectually exclude the
moisture ; let it remain thus from twelve to twenty-
four hours; then open the cavity, and withdraw the
silk or cotton, and if this is found free from moisture
and odor, the tooth is ready to be filled.
The treatment just described will be sufficient for
all cases in which the pulp has been destroyed by the
operator. But teeth whose pulps are already dead,
would seem to be less difficult of treatment and fill-
ing; yet such is not the case;—indeed, the therapeutic
treatment of these is usually more protracted, and
their diseased condition less easily controlled ; and
this because of the fact that the decaying pulp, re-
maining in the canal, becomes very offensive and
irritating to the living parts adjacent, in which it
induces a chronic diseased condition, frequently in-
volving the dentine along the walls of the canal in
decomposition.
A classification of these teeth, based on their con-
ditions, might be somewhat auxiliary to a further
examination of this subject; and the following will
probably embrace them all :
1st. Those whose pulps are dead, but their attach-
ment and adjacent parts alive and healthy.
