Grant Van Huysen

Operative procedures and the tooth

Abstract 1. The exposed pulp can be satisfactorily protected from irritating filling materials with the immediate application of a calcium hydroxide paste or nonirritating metallic filling material. 2. Since it is difficult to detect minute pulp exposures with the naked eye the deep cavity should not have applied to it irritating chemicals. 3. Wherever possible, a calcium hydroxide paste should be used in deep cavities between dentin and irritating filling materials. 4. There was no apparent difference in the effect upon the tooth between cavity preparation with the steel bur and the airbrasive techniques.

Sodium Fluoride Reagent Concentration and Powdered Enamel Solubility

NE of the phases of tooth decay, that is, cavitation, for a long time has been assumed to be a dissolution of the tooth mineral material by a weak organic acid, presumably lactic acid. Although direct experimental proof of the assumption is lacking, it is difficult to see at present how it could be otherwise. The effect of fluorine in caries inhibition in human beings in the clinic and albino rats in the laboratory has added to, rather than detracted from, this assumption. This is particularly true since laboratory studies have demonstrated that the Mechanism of the effectiveness of fluorides may be through change in solubility of the tissues involved in the disease.`14 The effect of fluorine upon the solubility of calcium phosphates had been studied previous to the time when fluorine first became recognized as an inhibitor of tooth decay.5 On the basis of work carried out with respect to the effect of fluorine on phosphate and bone solubility, it was even predicted that fluorine might reduce the solubility of dental tissues. Volker6 first demonstrated that fluorine did affect tooth tissue solubility. Buonocore and Bibby7 demonstrated that certain reagents other than sodium fluoride reduced enamel solubility and that the effect varied with different reagents. This point was further emphasized by work done by Muhler and Van Huysen.8 As to the optimum concentration of the fluoride solutions used clinically in the inhibition of tooth decay and in the laboratory studies of enamel solubility, there is no unanimity of opinion. Most clinical investigators use one or two per cent solutions of sodium fluoride and believe that the latter is about as high a concentration as is safe to use with topical methods of application. In most of the in vitro studies of enamel solubility, a concentration of 1/500 reagent solution has been used. In addition to the question of fluoride concentration of reagent solutions, there is also the problem of correct pH of these protecting reagent solutions. It was Bibby9 who first pointed out that acidulated reagent solutions were more effective in reducing enamel solubility than were those at, or around, a neutral pH. In his measurements of the effectiveness of various enamel solubility reducing reagents, he used a pH of 4.0. It is proposed that in this study the effectiveness in reducing enamel solubility of various reagent solution concentrations be examined. Since sodium fluoride is the reagent solution most commonly used to inhibit tooth decay and

Oral fungus infection; candidiasis albicans.

Abstract Candida albicans is found in many mouths. It produces lesions in only a few. These may be membranous or granulomatous type lesions. Naturally, some clinicians, in their zeal for establishing a causative factor for an oral lesion, will, without adequate proof, claim causative relationship. This has been true in the past with respect to perleche, denture palatitis, and antibiotic therapy. However, it has been demonstrated that organisms in and about the oral cavity are not the exciting factors in these conditions. One cannot be positive without careful study that a mucous membrane lesion is due to Candida albicans. There is no known cure for lesions due to Candida albicans.