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TREATMENT OF CARIES. 69

tine thoroughly polished ; and yet after a time, decay
again attacks the tooth at the same point. Or, where
the caries has penetrated the tooth, so that it re-
quires filling, though it is skillfully filled, and the
plug and tooth carefully polished, yet in many in-
stances the dentine soon softens about the border of
the plug.

The extent and nature of the decay will suggest the
mode of treatment. Superficial caries on some parts
of the teeth may be remedied and removed by cutting
away the portion implicated in the disease, dressing
with a fine file, polishing with Arkansas, Scotch, or rot-
ten stone till the file marks disappear, and then apply-
ing the burnisher very thoroughly to the entire surface
operated upon. Afterward, the most careful atten-

tion to cleanliness is requisite, to prevent a recur-
rence of the attack. This treatment is applicable to
decay upon proximal surfaces; but in the depressions
of the masticatory and buccal surfaces of the molars,
it is not practicable.
Sometimes the dentine, at points where it is ex-
posed, gives warning, by acute sensitiveness, of
threatened decomposition, before there are any other
indications of it, thus evidencing the presence of
some very irritating agency promotive of decay.

Such points should receive prompt and strict atten-
tion, and the increased sensitiveness be immediately