🚀 go-pugleaf

Responding to Len Weisberg's post requesting info on having amalgam
fillings replaced:

I have begun to have my mercury amalgam fillings replaced, so here's
the guinea pig's point of view. There are three alternatives I know
of: gold, porcelain and plastic composite. I tried the first and the
third.

Gold is good because it is malleable somewhat like the amalgam
fillings. But gold shines in a `non-cosmetic' way and it costs a lot.
My insurance will only pay the cost of amalgam fillings, so I was out
of pocket a couple hundred for just one filling. It made sense,
though, because it was a back tooth and the cavity was quite large, so
it was like getting a cap.

Porcelain is nice and white, but it isn't malleable and it won't last
very long. And it costs as much as gold.

Plastic composites cost about as much as amalgam and are white, but
they are `installed' with a stinky (toxic?) glue and are not
malleable. They are supposed to last 5 to 15 years or so. I won't get
any more plastic composite fillings in the future partly because of
the glue used to hold them in place and especially because they aren't
malleable. If they aren't malleable, chewing can feel like someone is
poking a steel rod into the exposed nerve ending in my cavity. I went
back several times to have my dentist shave the composites to conform
more to my bite, but the problem was never entirely resolved. I may
even decide to have those removed in favor of gold.

I hope there's a lot of research being done for alternative filling
materials which aren't as expensive or garish as gold but which work
as well as amalgam.

I imagine that some of the dentists and dentist wannabes reading this
newsgroup will flame me for being a weird radical and will tell me I'm
paranoid. I really have done a lot of reading on mercury amalgams, pro
and con, and have decided to be on the safe side. If you take
precautions when handling the stuff, then I can be allowed to be
paranoid about you putting it into my body. I think you're going to
run across more and more folks like me, so it might be time to really
rethink the fillings issue and be willing to offer good alternatives.
We may be skittish about technology and some of its drawbacks
(cancer?), but we still want you to cure our toothaches! We definitely
want it both ways!

Since I'm on the subject, I thought I'd mention that I won't be
allowing myself to be x-rayed anymore. (I know, I know, the dosage is
SO low...) But again, if it's not good for a human fetus, I don't care
to have it done to me unless the problem were immediately
life-threatening. I hope dentistry schools are encouraging students
not to rely so heavily on x-rays for finding cavities. There's gotta
be a better way!

Denise Cuevas