Plastics and plastic filling : as pertaining to the filling of all cavities of decay in teeth below medium in structure, and to difficult and inaccessible cavities in teeth of all grades of structure / by J. Foster Flagg.

  • Flagg, J. Foster (Josiah Foster), 1828-1903.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Plastics and plastic filling : as pertaining to the filling of all cavities of decay in teeth below medium in structure, and to difficult and inaccessible cavities in teeth of all grades of structure / by J. Foster Flagg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    luilt upon the sand, would fall, and that other teachings, if founded on a rock, would stand. Time and experiment would establish truth, and in no other way could it be established; therefore, from this period, I de- clined all new patients with teeth above medium in structure, and more closely concentrated my experiments upon such teeth as are, even now, usually condemned to extraction. In seven years more I found myself with a practice which was and is, to say the least, peculiar. It is peculiar, in that I seldom see a denture which is above average in quality. It is peculiar, in that I have many hundreds of patients for whom I have saved, for many years, the remains of dentures which had been almost lost under excellent operators with gold. It has been freely suggested to me that it is easy to save teeth when all those predisposed to decay have been extracted! and that it is easier to save teeth when arches are so broken as to permit a natural separation of the teeth ! and that persons' con- stitutions are apt to change, and thus the teeth are less liable to decay! but it has seemed to me strange that so many patients have come just lohen every tooth which was predisposed to decay had been extracted, and had thus placed under my charge no teeth except such as were not liable to decay ! And again, I have wondered why, when arches were quite sufficiently broken to permit the natural saving separation of the teeth, the loss should be continued until there were not teeth enough left to permit of natural mastication! and yet again, to me it seemed the most remarkable of all, that every patient's constitution should change immediately upon placing the teeth under the influence of plastic tilling materials ! It is peculiar, from the fact that I am able, with such dentures, selected for their frailty, to meet all indications without resort- ing to artificial work. By this term I mean to refer to the introduction of sets of teeth upon plates, either partial or com- plete, and do not include as artificial work the grafting of porcelain crowns, the insertion of plate teeth as faces to pivot- ings or the introduction of porcelain as edges, corners, or as mosaic fillings; all this work, I think, is properly taught as operative, and I would be understood as so regarding it.