The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-23

10
canals, filling them with gold or gutta
! percha, but as the germ theory was
| then unknown, much that we did was
| empirical. Nothing was then taught
about pyorrhea chorolaris, though l
soon found thorough cleasing of the
teeth and roots and treatment with
| oxychlorid of zinc very helpful. About
| two years after commencing my prac-
! tice here, DR.. Riggs of Hartford, Conn,
| wrote his first articles for the Dental
/ Cosmos upon his treatment of THIS
| disease, and from that time to the
1 present the mode of treatment has
! changed but little. Some two years att
/ er his writings appeared. 1 had the
1 privilege of spending a day with Dr.
Riggs in his Office, and through his
courtesy and kindness 1 gathered much
that has since been of great value. The
present methods of browning and
bridge work were unknown in our col
Iege work, and it must be within the
memory of many of you present, that
/ they were first brought clearly before
the profession.
The first dental machine was invent
ed by DIR. Green. He lived IN Mil
waukee, Wisconsin, if my memory
serves me right. This was pneumatic
and the burs and drills screwed into
the hand piece. [ possessed the fourth
one that crossed the Rocky mountains,
and found it of very great help. After
some two or three years that was
superseded by the present machine IN
vented by DIR. Morrison OF St LOUIS
which was the same as the one no"
in use excepting the great improve
ment given it by the steel cable, an
invention of Mr.. A H. Kennedy, broth
er of Mrs. w. A. Bowen of this city,
a young man who lived in a town ad-
Joining the one in which 1 spent my
boyhood l we'll remember the inter
est excited among the boys of my town
when it was told that young Kennedy
| had invented a machine for conveying
| power. which was first used for shear
| ing sheep, and many went to see 1t
work, but did not happen TO be among
i the number. He sold his patent to ,.
! s. White for the small sum of $4,000,
and probably he made a million on 1t.
| as there is hardly any place where
power is to be transferred where it IS
not used. OF course this put the Nor
| rison machine in much the same place
/ as the Morrison had put the Green ma
chine.
Through the training of my precep-
/ tor whose superior never saw in fill
ing With gold, and my teaching in the
i dental college under the still famous
| DR.. James Truman, L became deeply
/ impressed with the superiority of gold
! for the filing of teeth above every and
all substitutes. From the first to the
/ present with very few exceptions, I'M
! less the question of expense prevented,
Tsx
/ years experience has more than proved
/ to my mind, that without regard to age
/ except in the anterior teeth OF the
young, especially of Hawaiians, gold for
! durab iIity and cheapness in the end
I far outranks any and all other mate
rial Rarely week or day passes that,
! I DO not see gold filings in occlusial
, or approximate surfaces that have been
doing perfect service for ten, twenty,
/ thirty or more years. Filings of recent
/ date, made with all the instruction Civ
/ en- by such men as DR.. Black and
I host of other gold workers, should prove
much superior to those of early days.
I Some. years ago. before preparing a pa
! per for the California State Dental As
ISOLATION on the value of gold for fill
ings, I put my ledger into the hands of
+ a professional bookkeeper, in order to
/ eliminate the personal element, and he
I chose the first twenty-one names that
+ I had had upon my books for TWEEN
/ ty-one years, followed each filing
+ through the twenty-one years ant in
summing up the results found but five
! per cent had required reflIing within
! that time. Oxyphosphate was then
unknown to the profession at large if
/ at all OxychIoraI was known but
rarely used AS it was then made it
! was of small value.
Silver alloys have been greatly i'm
proved since began practice. AIRING
tons was probably as good as any, but
+ then as now they proved a very uncer-
tain material upon which to rely. We
were carefully trained in regard to
+ cleanliness of all instruments to be
used in the mouth though without our
! present knowledge of germs and their
/ influence. may say, however. that in
/ nearly 20 years of life in a dental office
under all the many conditions I have
+ seen. I have never met a single case
that showed that disease had been
/ communicated bv dental instruments
F. in the hand of a regular dentist / do
not mention this TO detract from the
! great Importance Of the most scrupu-
Ious care with our instruments. but TO
/ show that there is less danger than
! some would have US believe, who write
! scare articles for our journals We
cannot be too careful. but 10 make cap
! ital by working upon the fears OF our