Paul (VI. xii) says supernumerary teeth may be cut down with excavators (τῶν σμιλιωτῶν).
File.
Greek, ῥινάριον, ῥίνη, ῥινίον; Latin, lima, limula.
In compound fracture with protrusion of bone Celsus says:
‘Should any small piece of bone protrude, if it is blunt it should be reduced to its place. If it is sharp its point should first be cut off if it is long, and if short it should be filed. “In either case it should be smoothed with the raspatory.”’ (Si longius est, praecidendum; si brevius, limandum, et utrumque scalpro laevandum.)
The application of the raspatory to smooth the bone after the use of the file shows that it must have been more of the nature of a rasp than a file which was used for bones. Scribonius Largus speaks of a wood file or rasp used in reducing a hart’s horn to powder (Comp. cxli):
Ad lumbricos satis commode facit et santonica herba, quae non viget, et cornum cervinum limatum lima lignaria.
Files were largely used in dental work. All the surgeons state that where a tooth projects above its fellows it should be filed down; Galen says that for this purpose he has invented an olivary pointed file of steel: σιδήριον ἐποίησα ῥινίον πυρηνοειδές (xiv. 871).
Aetius copies Galen’s chapter word for word (II. iv. 30). Paul (VI. xxviii) says the file (ῥινάριον) may be used to remove tartar from teeth.