or temporary fillings in sensitive cavities,
because it is soft and easily packed in contact with the walls, has
therapeutic value, and after a time, when the temporary filling is
removed, the cavity is not as sensitive as formerly.

It has been observed that starting gold in a sensitive cavity causes
pain, but starting tin in the same place seldom does.

As long as tin preserves its integrity it preserves the tooth, therefore
tin fillings should not be repaired with amalgam, as their integrity may
be destroyed. Cavities can be partly filled with tin and completed with
sponge, fibrous, or crystalloid gold, after the manner described for
beginning with tin and finishing with gold foil.

"I advocated tin at the cervical wall, cervico-lingual and
cervico-buccal angles to the thickness of 24 plate. Then complete the
filling with gold. Some of my most successful efforts in saving soft
teeth have been made in this way. This method has great value over gold
for the whole filling, but there are two objections to it: First, it
imparts to the cervical border the color and appearance of decay, so
that in three cases where an instrument passed readily into the tin I
have removed the fillings, without any necessity for it, not even
finding any softening of the margins. Second, its use requires the same
conditions of dryness, shape of cavity, delicate manipulation,
inconvenience to patient, and strain upon the operator as when gold is
used alone." (Dr. D. D. Smith, _Dental Cosmos_, 1883.) He admits that
this method saves _soft_ teeth and also cervical margins. Do not those
two very important factors more than counterbalance the color, and
oversight of the dentist?

Dryness is an essential in making the best filling with any material,
and the time and strain consumed by the majority of operators in filling
with tin is not more than one-half what it is in using gold.

"I use tin at the cervical margin of all proximal cavities in bicuspids
and molars. I prepare a matrix of orange-wood to suit each case, letting
it cover about one-third of the cavity, then fill with tin condensed by
hand force and automatic mallet; now split the matrix and carefully
remove it piece by piece, so as not to disturb the tin; then trim and
finish this part of the filling. Make another wooden matrix, which
covers the tin and remainder of the cavity, and fit it snugly to place.
Use a coarsely serrated plugger and begin packing non-cohesive gold
into the ti