Mydentist no oonger will work with amalgam (mercury-silver) fillings. He belives this nonsense about the mercury leaching out and causing all kinds of ills. He wants me to change to plastic compostion fillings (which cost 3X the price and last half as long). So I have to find a new dentist.
Has anything bad ever been pinned on amalgam fillings, or is this another scare story?
The ADA’s position on amalgam fillings.
Quackwatch page with links to other resources.
It appears to have as much science behind it as thimerosal in vaccines causing autism (ie none).
I can’t comment on the toxicity concerns of amalgam fillings. However, resin fillings do have a couple of advantages over amalgam: They are better cosmetically (obviously), and they may allow better preservation of tooth structure: from here:
Or so I’m told - I’m not a dentist!
Plus, my dentist told me that the resin fillings are a bit more ‘stretchy’, whereas the amalgam acts more like a wedge in the tooth. Eventually you’ll get spaces between the amalgam and the tooth (due to teeth moving, grinding, the amalgam doing the wedge-thing) that you can’t get your brush into. He said it’s not uncommon to see a cavity under an older (granted, this is after like, 20 years or so) amalgam filling because of this.
Amalgam fillings tend to outlast the dentist who installs them. Club dues continue to rise. See the problem?
While we’re on the subject, beware of the new dental cameras which are being used to sell you on services you don’t need. Because of the extreme magnfication, photos can be taken which will give a customer the impression that his teeth are rotting out of his head. It’s a marketing scam.
My (now) former dentist’s hygienist took a set of these one day out of the blue and showed them to me. She showed me huge black spots next to my current fillings and explained that my teeth were decaying around the old fillings so they needed to remove ALL my old fillings, excavate the area to clean up the decay, and then re-fill them with the new “better” fillings. She then showed me an estimate of nearly $2,000 and told me to see the receptionist to schedule an appointment.
My husband’s cousin is a dentist so I took the photos to him. He laughed and said that the cameras were a new marketing device whose only purpose was to increase sales. (A friend of mine who worked for my former dentist later told me she quit because she was under pressure to make a monthly quota.) I asked what the huge black spots were on my teeth and he said “Shadows.” He said they could manipulate the light to make it appear dark in the natural indentations of your teeth. He then took x-rays of my teeth and showed them to me. He pointed to one of the teeth that the hygienist claimed had a serious cavity. He asked me to point to the hole. I could clearly see the filling but no hole next to it. He said that’s because it didn’t exist. Even the smoothest surfaces looked bumpy under extreme magnification. He said if you ever had a question about the veracity of these newly discovered “cavities”, ask them to take an x-ray. Holes, or cavities, will show up black on the x-rays.
I’ve been going to my husband’s cousin for several years now. I still have most of my silver fillings. (He did eventually replace one.)
Missed edit window but I did want to add, googling does turn up disadvantages of resin compared with amalgam as well; the fact that the resin doesn’t last as long is one such. PunditLisa’s comment that amalgam outlasts the dentist is quite true ( I’ve got several that are 20-30 years old).
A dentist did this to me. He used that camera and tried to convince me that I had a cavity where none existed. It was the handshake and the ‘trust me’ at the end of the conversation that tipped me off.
I had no idea that dentists could be scammers too. :eek:
I went to another dentist later and confirmed the scam. What a racket! :mad:
This I can attest to. I had quite a bit of decay under some 20 year old amalgam fillings. I’m now getting three crowns. Blech.
Yeah, I had ONE visit with a dentist who used this camera thing. I got this long, detailed list of stuff I (supposedly) needed done, and an estimated cost of $5K. I also noticed that his office wall was adorned with pictures of his family that were taken at exotic vacation spots around the world; the entire clan was into scuba diving and tae-kwon-do. His parking lot contained his and her Escalades (his wife was his hygienist); my conclusion was that he needed a lot of cash flow.
I often use teeth as an argument against Intelligent Design; sharks have the ability to grow nearly unlimited sets of teeth. Why am I unable to do so? Why would an Intelligent, Loving, God fill our mouths with unreliable bits of stuff that will not only wear out but rot while doing so, causing millions of people unbearable pain? I’m rambling, ain’t I?
Perhaps God has a thing for dentists.
Another is that they can hurt like a SOB - mine does, anyway. My stupid dentist (to whom I am not returning; he was running a scam if I ever saw one) put a huge resin filling over the main grinding surface of my first bicuspid. It’s painful to chew on it.
I had a dentist use the camera in my mouth once. I didn’t get the scam vibe. He didn’t try to sell me on any procedures. Just showed me how nasty the back side of my incisors looked and convinced me that regular visits (twice yearly) were a good idea. He also showed me areas of decay (not yet cavities) and said that we needed to keep an eye on them.
I remember leaving and thinking that the camera was a great tool, and would probably be good for is business. If people could see up close on a big screen what tooth decay looks like, they would come in more often and get work done that they might have put off.
I don’t find it hard to believe that some denists would make the leap to the high pressure scams you describe though. I do think that with an ethical dentist it could still boost business, and make people more aware and concerned about their dental health.
Geez. After reading these posts about scammer dentists, I’m so glad I’ve got the one I go to!
I bet consumer demand plays a role. Between the worries about the mercury and the desire for a better cosmetic outcome, I’m not sure there’s a ton of demand for amalgam anymore. In fact, I bet amalgam fillings will pretty soon come to be seen as freakish. I think whenever I’ve need a filling in recent years, the dentist has just gone ahead and put in the resin or ceramic filling without even asking. But since I have dental insurance, I haven’t been hit directly with the increased cost.
It’s like when football players thank God for helping them win a game. The implication is that He hates the other team.
He hates you.
<Martin Riggs>Hate Him back. It works for me.</Martin Riggs>
So did mine. I’m having 4 amalgam-filled teeth redone not because I want to, but 3 of the 4 have cavities below them and one is crumbling slowly. I like the resin ones better as they look nice and don’t take as long to do.
I’ve been getting resin fillings for years; never had any “fail” or need repairs.
Can’t say the same for the amalgam ones.
The skill of your dentist is the key. Find a good one - keep them for life if possible.
I’ve been going to the same dentist since I was 10. I’m 48 now.
The dentist is supposed to have you tap down on a piece of paper that has some kind of ink on it that shows where the bite is uneven; then grind down the resin filling. Repeat until even. The resin/composite has the same hardness as your actual tooth; it has no give. So if this evening out process isn’t done or is done poorly you’re in for some serious pain. Amalgam is softer, so any unevenness of bite using that stuff is crushed away by your biting/chewing.
I’ve got a mouthful of old amalgam fillings that are gradually crumbling, or developing cavities under them, or else were just made too big originally so there’s so little tooth left that I’m gradually ending up having to have most of my molars crowned. (Let this be a lesson on the problems of no fluoride when your teeth are developing as children – I’m living proof of what the lack of fluoride during the crucial years can do!) My dentist, who’s highly trustworthy, fortunately, explained that the older technique used to be to drill out not only the cavity but a little “extra” around it to make sure all the decay is gone. They’re targeting fillings more carefully these days to not remove healthy tooth, which sounds like a good idea to me.
I’ve known people who spent over 10K and months of dental torture getting all their amalgam fillings replaced, though. I’ve not run into the new camera, but I must say that I’m not surprised there are people turning almost anything useful into a profit center. A healthy dose of skepticism is a requirement when dealing with almost anything these days, unfortunately.
Well damn… so that’s what it is.
I recently replaced some old amalgam fillings with resin because the filling had been poorly done the first time around and there was a little bit of decay in the surrounding tooth (one had partially come out, hence my reason for being at the dentist’s in the first place… obviously, not the same one who did the initial fillings)
Ever since then, one of the molars with a new filling has been more sensitive to all sorts of thing (chewy/sticky foods, hot foods, cold foods, bad muzak… well, okay, not the muzak). Nice to know what the culprit is.