CROWN AND BRIDGE WORK. Modern bridge work (or the insertion of artificial teeth by means of bands, springs. or artificial crowns attached to the crowns or roots of natural teeth) is but a modification of methods pursued by the ancients many centuries before the Christian Era. The use of bridges is not infrequently car ried to extremes, and bulky bridges are some times attached to teeth which are incapable of bearing the strain for any length of time. Poorly made or improperly adapted bridges are fre quently inserted, and are prolific sources of pol lution of the secretions of the month; and some cases of movable or immovable bridges require considerable sacrifice of natural tooth structure, or perhaps devitalization of the pulp. in order that the bridge may be properly adjusted. It is sometime: a difficult matter to determine the best means of restoration or prosthesis in these eases, but the conservative dentist will hesitate, and perhaps prefer a partial denture. rather than resort to the sacrifice of those tissues for the sake of introducing a bridge.
Gold shell crowns. for the purpose of covering teeth too badly broken down to be amenable to the operation of tilling, are supposed to be of quite recent invention, but it is claimed that their use was suggested by gips Mouton. of Paris, as far back as 1746. It is said also that Mouton advised enameling the exposed surfaces of such crowns. Gold crown-wo•k has been abused even more than; .ir.Lge-mirk. and we frequently find gold crowmq placed on the anterior teeth to pro tect them when injured or diseased, or to serve as abutments for bridges. when crowns of poree lain or porcelain-faced crowns would answer the purpose as well, and he much more sightly. Many patients will insist on a dentist placing it gold cap or shell crown on a tooth, when a filling of sort would be 'cry much better and much more artistic. Fortunately, the laity, as well as the dentist, are beginning to appreciate the emir" mitt' of this ollense against good taste,