Notes on materia medica : pharmacology and therapeutics for dental students and practitioners / by Douglas Gabell and Harold Austen.

Gabell, Douglas (Douglas Phillimore)

Date:: 1914

Credit: Notes on materia medica : pharmacology and therapeutics for dental students and practitioners / by Douglas Gabell and Harold Austen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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$Pulp stones, such as are often found in the pulps of young gouty subjects, arrest the action of arsenic and cause violent pain, possibly by the swelling above pressing the pulp stone into the pulp belo\y. In such cases it is better to administer an anaisthetic and remove the obstruction. Whilst the roots are incomplete an arsenical dressing must not be left in the tooth for more than 12 hours, and the avoidance of its use at all is to be desired. Absorption starts in the roots of temporaiy centrals and laterals soon after their completion, so that it is never safe to depend on these roots being complete; the canines are complete from about the 5th to the 8th year ; the first molars from about the 5th to the 7th year; the second molars from the 6th to the 8th year; the permanent teeth have their roots completed about three years after their eruption. The caustic action of arsenic may be employed as an obtundent of sensitive dentine in very shallow cavities. It must not be left in contact with the tooth for more than two hom-s, and the carious dentine must then be very fully removed. It is very effective, but very dangerous to the pulp. It acts by destroying the vitality of the dentinal fibrils without coagulating them, hence the dangerous depth of penetration. ANTISEPTIC. The antiseptic action of arsenic will tend to prevent putrefactive changes in the pulp after its destruction, but it is not powerful enough to be relied on to disinfect an already infected pulp. After devitalisation by arsenic, the application of a dressing of tannin and carbolic will, in a few days, render the pulp harder and more easy of removal; it will also help to prevent putrefaction, and hasten the death of a half-dead pulp. C$