Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-07-19

uO any Qdrn1.
We'll, If they do not contain that which
is known to the dental and medical frater-
nifty as anesthetic producing drugs, then,
there are great many unknown remedies
for the alienation of pain which the
world is patiently waiting to learn the
names Of. The anesthetic which requires
the longest time to produce the anesthetic
effect, in my estimation, is the best. 1t
doesn't seem reasonable that any prepsra-
ton, whether hypodermically applied or
not, can produce immediate and instanta-
neous effect. / have in mind one anes-
thetic where the compounder directs i'm
mediate extraction after injection. 1t
seems to me, that you should give the
medicine time to penetrate, if possible, the
porous alveola process, or at least to
reach the peridental membrane, and to a
certain extent be absorbed into the system.
have sometimes suggested and recon-
mended a local anesthetic where the parties
were reluctant to take ether or gas, and
they refused it, for the reason, as they said,
THAT it would do no good. They had had
1t tried and the extraction was Just as pain
full as without it, But when / tried to
convince them that the anesthetic was, per-
haps, not the right kind, they still refused
to be convinced and finally took gas.
But | find it impossible to get along
without some such anesthetic. Some
will have nothing else, and. inasnuch
as it considerably alleviates the pain
OF extraction it is in that sense, at
least, indispensable in the dental office.
cannot, or at least, / do not assure my
patients, as / am sometimes asked to do,
that it will entirely remove the pain of ex-
traction. And yet have been assured by
many persons that it caused no pain what
ever. On this have sometimes acquired a
false reputation, for second party comes
IN recommended by the first and says: Il
hear you pull teeth without hurting floks'
And | reply, that | sometimes do, and forth
with make the application, to be only told
afterw ards, that the darned thing hurt"
with the experience | have had in the
extraction of teeth by local anesthesia l
have not become a convert to its adoption
to the exclusion of all other methods, nor
do believe it will long continue to be used
in dental practice. l am not prophet, nor
the son of prophet, and yet l prophesy
that in less than ten years local anesthesa
as produced by the .hypodermic method
will be as little used in the dental office as
are the freezing and electric processes
today. Every dog has his day, and
every fad has its run and, in
my opinion, the fad for local aues-
thesla has reached high water mark. Ether
and gas, don't believe, will ever be driven
from the dental office. The large majority
of people nowadays do not want any pain
at all while undergoing dental operations,
and l do not know of any anesthetic that
fills the bill so satisfactorily as gas or ether.
OF course there is some slight danger at
tending their administration, but with pro-
per care, and careful investigation the dam
ger is made very remote. AS dentists, we
cannot escape responsibility. To do our
duty, and our whole duty, we must strive
to lessen the pain aud suffering of tooth
extraction by the best methods known to
dental and medical science"
DR.. +. j. Roberts of Augusta, read pa
per upon the subject of Filling Materials"
In outline he said that not intending to read
paper at this meeting he had at late day
consented to do so, and that the paper must
be only but a simple and hasty glance.
What called his mind to speak upon filling
material was the fact that a man called
showing tooth filled with buck shot some
ten years ago which was accidentally bitten
into the cavity and as he could not remove
it he crowded it in by biting it. AT the
time of the accident he called upon the
doctor who advised letting it remain. That
buck shot as filling was still doing good
service in preserving the tooth from further
decay while in the same mouth other teeth
had since decayed and were lost by neglect.
Before the time of the more perfect de-
velopment of dentistry and while the prac-
tice of it was yet crude, lead was used as
filing material, but as we have vastly bet
ter material for that purpose lead has no
place as a filling material.
When he began the study of dentistry
there were but two permanent filling ma
terials, namely, gold and tin foils and the
plastic filling for temporary work, DR..
Hills gutta percha stopping. Quack dem
tist men made up cheap and of cheek freely
used plastic material called amalgsm.
The paper planned in detail the gold then
used and the different forms of gold used
since and the methods of manipulating each
gold.
The first gold was non-cohesive and ex-
pert dentists succeeded in performing
class of work which time and improvement
has not excelled, but success in many cases
were short of the work of gold filing of the
DE
in the cavity in pellets and wedged until the
cavity was fled and then the projecting
gold was condensed into the cavity and in
very many cases it would condense be-
low the cavity margin, and to level the
work the tooth was filed down to the level
of the gold. We now have an cohesive
gold which we build up from the bottom of
the cavity rounding it off full and
dress off to the level of the tooth in
stead of dressing off tooth structure to the
level of the gold.
We have the great advantage in this form
of gold that we are able to build up whole
crown of gold, a cusp or biting edge.
As cohesive gold is hard and many dentists
have failed to make water tight filings and
very many teeth have been ruined instead
of saved at the hands of poor dental opera
tors. The skilled dentist is always sue
cessful.
This difficulty has been greatly obviated
bv the introduction IN the dental market of
a semi cohesive gold called soft gold which
adapts more readily to the walls of the cav
ity, and many cavities are filled with II
quality of gold, and in cavities where the
hard gold is used the soft is frequently COM
h;naj in plpres of undercut.