This online version of the exhibit is comprised of four sections: Discussion material related to the display in the exhibit case. (This page.) A collection of 200 excerpted selections which accompanied the exhibit. The exhibit guide, as a PDF [364K], including most of the material given in the first two items of this list. Online only content: Sidebars A more complete collection of quotations given in full with full citations. [Forthcoming, late October 2002.] "The Toothless Genius" Dental Do's and Don'ts How to Enjoy the Tooth-Ache Prophylactic Items (Tuller)

Dental Do's and Don'ts

• Don't use cement for filling without the rubber dam.
• Don't remove overhanging enamel.
• Don't allow any moisture in cavity on slab or scapula.
• Don't use excess of liquid or powder.
• Don't be careless about shade.
• Don't remove dam until cement is hard.

• Don't attempt a case of orthodontia if you cannot seriously give it the necessary time and consideration.
• Don't subject a child, say of eight years, to an operation that could as well wait until the age of fourteen or sixteen has been reached, just because it is an interesting case, and you are anxious to get at it.
• Don't commit yourself to too many definite conclusions as to method, time, and cost of an operation, at the first examination or interview with your patient.
• Don't become wedded to a few sterotyped appliances to meet all cases that come under your notice, Thus dwarfing your inventive faculties. Rather handle each case on its own merits.
• Don't fail to get and preserve models of your cases at the various stages of the operation. They will prove a satisfaction both to you and your patient.

• Don't fail to have your instruments thoroughly sterilized before extracting. Better boil them.
• Don't have to look for your instruments under an anesthetic when you want to use them.
• Don't have your patient in a recumbent position under nitrous oxide gas when extracting.
• Don't extract lower teeth first if you have upper teeth to take out at the same time.
• Don't proceed to extract if you let a root or tooth drop in the mouth until it is removed.
• Don't be afraid to go up into the process at once for roots under an anesthetic, and lose no time.

• Don't attempt a gold filling where you haven¹t access to every part of cavity.
• Don't use a plugger point that gives anything but a direct blow.
• Don't attempt a gold filling in a tooth that is void of proper support, natural or artificial.
• Don't forget the burnisher plays an important part in finishing a gold filling.
• Don't endanger cutting edge of incisor for sake of anchorage, rather groove toward pulp chamber.
• Don't get it into your head that a porcelain inlay is a good substitute in the majority of cases for a gold filling -- it is not.

• Don't correct irregularities for fun -- unless you are a professional comedian.
• Don't expand the arch if you can extract anything -- even the centrals will do.
• Don't leave a retainer on too long -- till death is long enough.
• Don't excite your patients over possible difficulties -- they are apt to go to the other dentist.
• Don't take the spring out of an alignment wire -- it¹s a good way to extract molars.
• Don't use a simple appliance if you can make a complicated one -- few men can.

Amalgam is a filling material which we all use every day, and doubtless the ³Don'ts² which I shall give are observed by you all, but it is well to remind ourselves of them occasionally, as I have set down a few of those, which we should constantly bear in mind. Don't try to insert an amalgam filling in an approximal cavity without using a matrix fitting closely at gingival margin, for in order to have a properly contoured filling we must have a four-walled cavity also; if no matrix is used some of the filling material will be crowded over gingival margin of cavity. Don't let your filling get wet while inserting, for the moisture in the filling will prevent finishing accurately to your intended outline. Don't leave a thin edge of amalgam projecting over cavity margins on morsal surface, to crumble away later on and invite recurrence of decay. Don't forget when inserting a large filling that the pressure required in filling expresses mercury from the first pellets, causing a surplus of mercury on the surface, and an unequal distribution of the mercury in the filling; avoid this by squeezing your amalgam between the fingers in such a way that one end shall contain more mercury than the other, then use pellets from the end having excess of mercury first, and finishing with the drier pellets. Don't leave unsupported enamel on morsal surface when filling with amalgam, just because amalgam is plastic and can be packed in, while gold cannot. Don't hurry the mixing of your filling; take time to get the alloy and mercury well rubbed together. If the mercury is not borken up and well distributed through the filling the latter will be dry and crumbly even though there is sufficient mercury present.

Do not begin the correction of an irregularity until a diagnosis is made. Do not wait until all the teeth are erupted to begin the correction of an irregularity. Anticipate the deformity and guide the teeth into position. Do not forget that upon the proper occlusion of the teeth depends the success of every operation of facial orthopedia. The lower teeth are the guides to the upper. In arriving at a diagnosis do not look at the irregular tooth alone. Examine all the teeth. Note the occlusion and the profile and facial expression.