The Dental Cosmos Volume 56 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 Excerpt: ... inlay is to be a durable operation, whether it is to be a tooth-saving operation up to the standard of the inserted filling. We should be able to get at that by some other method than the so-called practical method of trying it on our patients and making them pay for our failures in the loss of their teeth. The time is coining, and I believe the dental profession is growing into that attitude of mind, in which such problems as that will be submitted to critical laboratory test in so far as it may apply, in order that we may get a better knowledge of the conditions with which we are dealing in the mouth before we resort to the unfair and extravagant method of trying it out on the patient. As an example of that, the whole question of the solubility of the cement material upon which the integrity of all inlays is dependent, waits for its solution on our knowledge of the changes that take place in the composition of the oral fluids. As soon as our knowledge of the composition of the oral fluids, their reaction and so on, and their behavior with reference to various cement mixtures, has become more enlarged by careful scientific laboratory investigation, we shall be in better position to say in advance as to whether this particular cement composition is likely to endure in a particular mouth or not. These are questions that we have been unable heretofore to solve except by practical experiment in the mouth, but we should be able to have a great deal of preliminary information in regard to such matters derived from scientific research. Therefore, to the extent that we have been unable to utilize such resources, because no resources exist, there is perhaps some justification for our having tried it out practically on the patient. I feel, as I am sure you all do, ...