DENTAL CARIES.
Preventive treatment will consist in thorough cleansing of the mouth at least twice a day and the use of a local antiseptic, as the condition is due to microbic action. Odolol in alcohol makes the most reliable of washes; it splits into salicylic acid and phenol in contact with the alkaline saliva and renders the mouth aseptic, a few drops being used on the wetted tooth brush. Oil of Cloves inserted by pushing a thin wooden tooth-pick moist erred with it between the teeth and Formamint tablets slowly dissolved in the mouth are also highly efficient. Dental caries is greatly facilitated by the free use of sugar and starch, and many cases are evidently caused in children by the habit of constant indulgence in sweetmeats. Baker's fine white bread is answerable for the increase in decay of the teeth, being directly proportional to the perfection of the process in milling wheat into flour.
Pain may be relieved, whether due to disease of the dentine or exposure of the pulp, by gently removing the softened dentine, and after drying the cavity with cotton-wool a small pledget of wool soaked in Carbolic Acid, Chloroform, 5 per cent. Cocaine, Creosote or Oil of Cloves should be loosely packed without pressure into the cavity and renewed every six or twelve hours. When the pain has been relieved and the cavity thoroughly dis infected an attempt should be made to save the tooth by stopping with metallic filling. When the above measures fail extraction must be resorted to, but even in cases where the infection has extended through the apical canal of the tooth, producing alveolar abscess and periodontitis, the tooth may often be saved by a skilled dentist.