Little Things. [Volume: 2, Issue: 6, January, 1861, pp. 322-324]

LITTLE THINGS.

323

true gentleman, nor can any one accomplishment make a perfect operator;
but these desirable conditions depend upon the aggregation of minor
virtues and minor accomplishments.
It becomes, then, the duty of every member of our profession to note
these items as they occur to him, and furnish them to the profession
through the journals.
Here, gentlemen, you have my excuse for the presentation of the following hints.
AMALGAM.-We are told that amalgam shrinks. (See Taft's Operative Dentistry, page 89.) Nearly seven years ago I came across the
assertion for the first time, and, not content to receive it without experiment, placed a line or ridge of the freshly-mixed material, about two
inches in length, between two fixed points. Some twelve hours afterward
the middle was found to be raised up, and the two ends still pressed closely
against the two fixed points, thus showing a considerable expansion.
This, indeed, is what I might have anticipated from a consideration of
the well-known fact that most bodies expand in the act of crystallization.
I do not offer this in defense of amalgam, but as a scientific fact.
FUSIBLE METAL PLUGS.-My brother says he came across the track
of one of those eccentric, geniuses called self-made dentists, and who,
like certain irregular bodies that occasionally visit our planetary system,
left behind him a long trail of the scintillations of his genius.
This gentleman, after such a brief preparation of the cavity as genius
alone requires, caused the patient to lie down upon the floor; when, with
a pointed soldering-iron, similar to those used by tinsmiths, a lump of
fusible metal, which had been previously placed in the cavity, was melted,
and as well adapted to its walls as the circumstances would admit. Of
course such little unpleasant incidentals as blistered lips, etc. were of little
note, so long as "the dentist" says the teeth must be filled.
CAPPING NERVES.-Though there is a decided difference of opinion
with regard to capping exposed dental pulps, yet I have reason to
believe that a majority of operators occasionally place caps over pulps
which are nearly exposed, to prevent undue pressure upon them.
For this purpose gold plate, rolled very thin, is convenient. The cap,
after being trimmed to the proper shape and size, may be rendered concave
on one side by pressing a round burnisher upon it. I have found it convenient, at this stage, to place a very little beeswax on the concave
side of the cap. This assists in retaining the cap in situ during the
introduction of the gold, while at the same time it displaces the little
portion of atmospheric air, to the presence of which some seriously
object.
A particle of wax placed on the point of a small instrument and applied
to the convex side of the cap, enables me to carry the cap to its position
in the cavity without difficulty.