Practical Hints. [Volume: 2, Issue: 11, June, 1861, pp. 585-587]

THE
DENTAL COSMOS.
NEW SERIES.
VOL. II. PHILADELPHIA, JUNE, 1861. No. 11.
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.
PRACTICAL HINTS.
BY J. D. WHITE.
TIDINESS of the dentist is one of the first things which it is his duty to
study, and yet it would seem, from many circumstances, that the subject
does not receive much attention. Writers have not given it as much consideration as many small mechanical matters which any one's own judgment would properly decide upon. There is a kind of law regulating the
tidiness or manner of serving a patient, while in the presence of a dentist,
as any other thing we do in life; hence there ought tQ be some kind of
rule laid down, or understood, for the consideration of the dental student,
and such detailed hints given as to afford him some kind of guide to be
governed by, else he may run from one extreme to another before he
knows what he is about, and become disgusting by his own uncultivated
inclinations. Manners on the part of the dentist, when he is about his
patient at the operating chair, is as essential as proper behavior at a dinner-table; and we are sure a great deal has been said by authors of large
abilities on that subject. We do not pretend to hold ourselves up as
without fault, or to dictate rules and regulations to others, but to refer to
some things which would seem to strike the mind as self-evident, yet do
not receive proper attention. A dentist in full practice has not the time
for drawing-room formalities or all the courtesies of morning calls, nor
does any one of common sense expect it; his office and waiting-rooms are
places of business, and the majority of persons who call upon him are
business people, or in haste from one point of duty to another; and it is
not uncommon in these days of railways and steamboats, that well-bred
persons commit the most uncivil and annoying interruptions at the dentist's
office for want of time to do better; so in like manner, the dentist, to
make time for the patient in hand, is obliged to treat very summarily a
patient making a first call, and incurs much censure by it; but good sense
on both sides will make in such cases every allowance. It is better for
VOL. II —42