136 ON CAPPING THE EXPOSED PULP. 



inflammatory symptoms arise, and both of these 

 yielded permanently to leeches and cathartics. 



Mr. Spence Bate prefers ivory caps over the pulp 

 to gold ones, as being more congenial to the nature of 

 a tooth, and not conducting changes of temperature. 



Dr. Du Bouchet strongly recommends horn for 

 the purpose, cut of a suitable shape, and immersed 

 for a short time in hot water to render it pliable. 



Mr. Bridgman employs a very ingenious instru- 

 ment for carrying the cap to its place. That on the 

 table is the one he uses for posterior and lateral 

 cavities in the lower molars. The cap has a small 

 hole drilled into its convex surface, and the point of 

 the holder being inserted into the hole, the cap is 

 placed in position over the exposed pulp, and by 

 a touch of the finger nail, the spiral spring is pressed 

 down and detaches the cap, leaving it in situ. 



My own practice has been to wait for the subsi- 

 dence of haemorrhage, should any have occurred, and 

 then carefully to adjust a gold cap of the necessary 

 size over the exposed pulp. As I consider it to be 

 a matter of great importance to avoid as much as 

 possible all irritation to the tooth in this delicate 

 condition, I fiU over the cap with amalgam. In cases 

 — as in the upper teeth, for example — where the cap 

 would be liable to fall out before the cavity could 

 be filled up, I touch the edges of the cap with a 

 solution of gum-mastic, so as to make it adhere to 

 the bone ; and to carry the cap to its place I use 

 either a delicate pair of pliers or blunted excavators 



