PAINLESS DENTISTRY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5839, 5 April 1897, Page 2

PAINLESS DENTISTRY.

(English Paver.) Xor the least of the boons which electricity has conferred on humanity is its adaptation to the use of the dentist, w!:o is now able to make good the oft-repeated and frequently advertised fallacy of " painless" operations. To this jn'ocoss the name of cataphoresis has been given. It really is a method by which, through the action of electricity, cocaine is forced into the minute pores which run through the tooth, and in this way affects every part of the microscopic nerves, which traverse what the histologist calls the tubules of the dentine, and cause pain out of all proportion to their infinitesimal proportions. Eeally and truly, cataphoresis means the movement of fluids from the positive to the negative pole of a battery. As soon as "the sensitive part of the tooth is reached by means of those horrible little tools which the dentist manipulates so skilfully, the operator of the newest school applies a solution of cocaine and then the electric current, using perhaps from fifteen to twenty volts. This is usually sufficient in the course of a few minutes to make the tooth absolutely senseless to pain, although, in certain cases, as much as half an hour may be required. This time is, at present, the one drawback to the use of the process, because a dentist in a large practice has naturally not so much time to give to a single patient, unless his charges become proportionately increased. No doubt, however, the services of an assistant will eventually be called into requisition, and he will occupy himself in preparing the tooth for the surgeon to operate on with no fear of hurting sensitive people, without being himself torluved by screams, or having his hand pushed away at a critical moment. Altogether, it would appear as if our. children will not need to bo in dread of the dentist's touch, for his forceps will ceaso from troubling as they remove aching molars, and his drills and excavators will not harass the vibrating nerves in their operation. .