General Remarks on Filling Teeth. [Volume: 2, Issue: 7, February, 1861, pp. 368-371]

GENERAL REMARKS ON FILLING TEETH.

371

and integrity of the profession of their choice. The welfare of their patients is considered, and the chink of the dollar is but secondary to the
gratification of knowing that their perfect work will be the means of
preserving that which, if lost, no money could restore.
After the gold has been properly packed and consolidated, comes the
finishing; and those who think this of secondary importance do not take
Nature for their guide. What beautiful finish a tooth has from her hands 1
Mark not only the general contour, but the high gloss of the enameled
covering. What a beautifully-finished surface she has bestowed upon the
teeth, not merely for looks, but for the important and express purpose of
preventing any accumulation or retention of substances upon their surfaces,
that by decomposition might injure her handiwork! Fillings, when placed
in the teeth to restore, as far as practicable, the substance removed by
decay, should be subjected to a course of treatment that will produce as
nearly as possible the same finish. Gold is susceptible of a very high
polish, if the proper pains are taken and the material employed to produce it. A cavity may be ever so well prepared, and a filling ever so
firmly inserted, still, if the operator is satisfied, considering the work as
completed by merely going over the surface of the filling with the burnisher, he has not yet learned that the same filling is susceptible of being
improved fifty, ay, one hundred, per cent., by spending a quarter, half, or
even an hour longer upon it. Using several grades, from one moderately
coarse to the finest draw-file, then stoning with Scotch or other fine-grained
stones, and by the free use of rotten-stone, chalk, and other polishing
earths, applied with tape, buckskin, or soft wood, and ending with the
burnisher, a finish will thus be produced that would almost put to blush
the mirrored surface of silvered glass. Time and labor and suitable material can only produce it, but when it is, in the language of the poet, it
is ' a joy forever" not only to the painstaking operator, but to the dentist under whose eyes the work shall come. It has been my fortune,
during a long course of practice, to see many such finished pieces of work
by the noted of our profession, such as Parmly, Maynard, Harris, Townsend, Lord, Dwinelle, Allport, and others; and never has such work came
under my notice, although years have passed since it was done, but that I
have experienced as much pleasure in examining it as probably warmed
the heart of the honest, skillful, painstaking author of it. Such work
cannot be expected to emanate from the fippery, foppery, kid-gloved dentist, like the one who, on hearing the remark that Mr. George Waite's
(the eminent English dentist) hands were calloused by filling teeth, suggested
that such marks were made by holding on to the straps of his master's
carriage? No; the hands that performed such operations will not only
be calloused, but oftentimes blistered; ornaments more precious than
jewels, denoting as they do the faithful workman: the soft hand produces
soft work.
NEWARK, N. J.