a tiny glistening spot of moisture from a canal orifice when the pulp chamber is thoroughly dried. In a typical case of using the microscope for a maxillary first

molar, the access cavity is prepared (Fig. 2). After drilling a shallow trough with the smallest pulp bur a small white spot appears indicating dentine debris which has clogged the orifice (Fig. 3).This spot was not visible with the unaided eye. Having located the orifice the next step is to negotiate the canal with a size .06 file and the rest is easy (Fig. 4). Sometimes even a third canal in the mesiobuccal root is found (Fig. 5 ) . I predict that the operating microscope will be the standard of care in years to come.

Fkrtre 5: Maxillary first molar with three canals (awows) in the meshbuccal root.

Garlic Wards Off Undead Bacteria Legend has it that garlic will repel bloodthirsty vampires.

Now doctors in the US have found that it may fight off the more pressing menace of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Jerome Klein of Boston University Medical Center and Karen Farbman, now at the Rhode Island Hospital, tested the plant against a variety of infectious micro-organisms.They found that freshly pressed garlic extract, even diluted to one part in 250, proved effective against all the organisms in the laboratory study, including drug-resistant strains of bacteria. “The garlic extract not only inhibited, but also killed bacteria,” says Klein. The team’s findings were published in the Paediatric Infectious Disease

journal (vol 12, p.613).

Klein says that the plant’s effectiveness is probably due to allicin, a simple organic disulphide that is known to be an antibacterial agent. Allicin is also responsible for garlic’s pungent odour. Klein cautions that while the laboratory trials give reason for optimism, it is not yet clear how much allicin reaches sites of infection when we eat garlic, or even whether it acts as an antibiotic if it does get there. But with resistance to commercial antibiotics becoming an increasing problem, he says it is time for this ancient remedy to step out of the annals of folk medicine.

Justin Warner New Scientist

AUSTRALIAN ENDODONTIC NEWSLETTERVOLUME 23 No. 2 AUGUST 1997 37