Practical Hints. [Volume: 2, Issue: 5, December, 1860, pp. 249-250]

THE

DENTAL COS MOS.
NEW SERIES.

VOL. II. PHILADELPHIA, DECEMBER, 1860. No. 5.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.
PRACTICAL HINTS.
BY J. D. WHITE.
Filing teeth, preparatory to plugging, is a subject which requires more
experience than any other connected with our art. At first view it would
seem that a rule could be laid down, that the meanest tyro in the art
could adopt and apply as successfully as an older practitioner, who had
made it a protracted study, and observed the ultimate success or failure
of many cases. The success of to-day is not always the success of the
future, and it applies well in many of our operations in dentistry. There
is not enough attention paid to this; note should be taken of special
cases, and they should be watched carefully for a long time, in order to
determine the final results. It is a very difficult matter to decide how
much a tooth should be filed during the operation of plugging; to leave
the case in the best condition for the future benefit of the patient, it is
as important that a tooth should be so filed as to enable the patient to
take proper care of it after it is plugged, as to place it in the best state
of preservation and usefulness. But teeth change so much in their position, after they are filed, that it is impossible to foresee what will be the
end of every case. A good rule, however, should be adopted, and if unexpected changes take place, the operator is not to blame. It would be
a very desirable thing if teeth would remain as we leave them; but it is
bad practice to prepare them in such a way as to be immediately a
source of annoyance to the patient; still, in many cases, this can scarcely
be avoided. It is bad practice to file a tooth so that the bone is exposed
around the plug, after the operation is over, because it not only favors
future decay, but, if the bone be sensitive, it is a source of constant
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