THE DENTAL JOURNAL Pablished Under the Auspices of the Dental Society of the University of Michigan. VOL. VII. JANUARY, 1898. ELECTRICITY IN DENTISTRY. NO. 1. BY W. J. HERDMAN, M. D., PROFESSOR OF DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. Dentistry should be regarded, if it is not, as one of the specialties in the practice of medicine and surgery. The best Schools of Dentistry do so regard it and the curriculum of these schools provides for a fundamental training such as is required of the medical student. A thorough knowledge of chemistry, anatomy, physiology, hygiene, bacteriology, histology, pathology and materia medica is quite as necessary for the efficient practice of dentistry as of medicine and surgery. The field of operation for the dentist, though limited, is not any more so than that of the laryngologist, rhinologist, oculist or aurist. The variety of pathological conditions the dentist has to meet and contend with is quite as great as in any one of these other specialties and the resources he should have at his command, in order to successfully check and counteract disease in his peculiar field, are much the same. Especially is he in need of the help electricity furnishes, for not only can he get valuable aid from it as a motive power for various mechanical devices which are peculiar to dentistry and for which electric motors are best" adapted, such as drills, burs, burnishers, mallets, etc., but as a source of light for exploring the mouth, and of heat, when this is wanted for strictly limited application, electric means are far superior to any other. But little need be said in these columns calling the dentists' attention to the advantages to be gained from using electricity as a substitute for driving motor or for furnishing heat for cau teries or the hot-air syringe or lighting exploring lamps, since the manufacturers of such appliances can be trusted to bring the merits of such devices to the attention of their customers and use will soon settle the question of superiority. It is to the more strietly therapeutic applications of electricity to dentistry that we would direct your attention in these articles. Many inquiries have, from time to time, been addressed to us upon this subject. The demand for such knowledge, we find, is great and the sources of information limited. Among the various forms of electric energy that have been considered in more or less detail, i. e. the direct current or galvanism, the induced current or faradism, and static electricity, the former of these, the direct current, is the one to be chiefly if not solely considered, since it is the one most capable of effecting certain desirable changes in those tissues with which the dentist has to deal. The induced current or faradism may be of some service in allaying pain or obtunding sensitive dentine or in stimulating nutritive activity in the pulp, gums or alveoli while the direct or galvanic current can not only do this but, in addition, its range of electrolytic and cataphoric action gives to it a much wider field of usefulness with which the dentist should become familiar. We will endeavor in the following articles to point out some of the applications of the direct current to dentistry. ELECTROLYSIS IN DENTISTRY. While treating of Electrolysis in No. 2, Vol. 1, of the Bulletin, attention was called to the difference of effect upon living tissues produced at the anode or positive electrode from that at the cathode or negative electrode when a constant or direct current of even a few milliamperes is passed for a few minutes. The fluid of the tissues and the substances in solution in them are decomposed. Oxygen, the acids and bromine, chlorine, iodine, etc., accumulate in the vicinity of the anode, while hydrogen, the alkalies and metals gather at the cathode. It is possible then for the dentist, as it is for the physician, to utilize this capacity of an electric current, and to so localize its action upon any point with such precision as to increase the acidity or alkalinity of the tissue at that point, according to the pole used. |