Why Dental Amalgam

All Dentists have been taught ,in the last 180 years, the use of a dental material  that has been considered inexpensive and long-lasting.  This fact according to the American dental Association is the reason that even today the majority of dentists use this material which is over 50% mercury.  According to the American dental Association when Mercury is mixed with silver and a few other trace metals that the amalgam is inert.  There has never been any scientific proof that this statement could be correct.

This has been a very controversial issue ever since, 180 years ago, the dental amalgam was first used as a restorative material for teeth.   Back then we didn’t have the scientific instrumentation to prove that the mercury in the dental amalgam was not being released as a gas.  Today however we do have instrumentation that shows us mercury vapor being emitted from dental amalgam.  The IAOMT is an organization that utilizes science and the scientific method in order to oppose the opinion of the American dental Association that in fact the dental amalgam gives off mercury gas that is inhaled into the body 24 hours a day.  They made a video called The Smoking Tooth which shows without a doubt the gases that are being released by 25-year-old about him filling in an extracted tooth.  This to me as a dentists who has vowed to do no harm is a very alarming video.

Back in 1995 I made the decision to never put another amalgam filling in anyone’s mouth.  However at the time I didn’t realize that every time I took an old amalgam filling out I was exposing my patient my staff and myself to mercury vapor given off by the amalgam that was being taken out.  Mercury is the third most poisonous substance on this planet.  The mercury vapor penetrates our skin goes through our lungs and deposits it our kidneys our liver in our central nervous system to pose many possible neurologic and physical diseases.

We now use a method called the safe removal of dental amalgam to protect not only our patients but ourselves from the potential hazards of mercury vapor.  This entails the use of high-volume suction a large area suction and respirators. If you are interested in this protocol you can read about it on the website IAOMT.

Biologic Dentistry

As you may know new things are happening all the time in dentistry.  If you’ve been coming to my office for the past 10 years you’ve seen many changes that we have made for the better.  My main goal with all these changes has been to give you ,the patient, a better product and a better experience in an atmosphere of friendly professionalism.

One of the changes I made back in 1997 was to eliminate the use of silver mercury fillings also known as amalgams.   My main reason for this change was the fact that the silver mercury filling would break teeth due to its expansion over time.  The fact that mercury is a poison to the human body was secondary to the destruction of tooth structure that these fillings caused.  In 2006 the Mass. state legislature passed a law requiring that all dental offices have an amalgam separator so that the amalgam that is taken out of your mouth will not go into the land or our sewage systems.  At this time the American Dental Association has deemed that the silver mercury filling is not harmful to be put in a human body.

Biologic dentistry is all about the use of techniques for the removal of silver mercury fillings in a manner that protects the patient the dentist and the dental assistants.  I have been removing these fillings for the past 30 years.  In the last two years I have been doing testing to quantify the amount of mercury in my system.  The testing shows that I’m very high in mercury this could only be because of the removal of the silver mercury fillings.  At a later date I will go into some of the techniques used to prevent contamination of my patients myself and my staff from the mercury vapor that is released when the silver mercury filling is removed.  I would like you to look at this video on YouTube called the smoking tooth.  This video will let you see what happens to an  25-year-old silver mercury restoration and the amount of mercury vapor that continues to be released even after 25 years.  You can find this video on my website ADP dental.com



Loose CEREC Crown

I had a patient in the chair the other day with a loose Crown.  The crown was only a year and a half old and it was on an implant.  This happened to be a Cerec  crown that I made on this implant.  I tried to remove the crown in the traditional manner which is with the use of a Crown remover.  This however did not work so I cut the crown split open and took it out.  What I found was the abutment or post as people might refer to it had come loose and all I needed to do was tighten the screw.  After tightening the screw I simply took another picture and made another crown.

The reason I’m telling you about this is to show you the versatility and the user-friendly manner which Cerec  allows myself and the patient the fix a problem that in the past would’ve taken at least two appointments.  Instead in one hour and a half the patient walked out the office with a new crown in their mouth.  The patient was very happy about this and also about the warranty on the crown which was 100%.  He was especially happy about this.

I only brought this case up so that people can understand what this technology has done for you and for the dentist.  The ability to save teeth that otherwise would’ve needed  root canal treatment and post and crown which used to take four visits now can be done usually with an onlay in one visit.  What this means to the patient is not only a large savings in time a large savings in money.

I’ve been using Cerec for eight years now.  Over this time the technology has improved even more.  When I used to use a lab for this work the fit of the restorations was pretty good.  With Cerec however the fit is far superior.  Also the failure rate is much less than lab produced crowns.  What this means to you the consumer is a much better restoration than was possible before this technology existed.

Thank you for your time, I will keep you abreast of the new technologies of the fut

One Day Crowns

One of the most amazing things that we do in our practice is to construct restorations using Cad Cam technology. When this is performed, there is no need for messy gooey impressions and no need for a temporary crown because the permanent restoration is delivered at the same appointment.

These restorations are more accurate than conventional crowns fabricated at a commercial dental lab. Color can be matched perfectly to the color of your existing teeth.  The accuracy for which these crowns fit is far superior than the old porcelain fused to metal crowns because there is no lump at the margin. The reason for this is these restorations are all bonded, bonding is when you flow a resin material into the tooth structure and into the restoration. This bond leaves no residual bump on the tooth surface where bacteria could accumulate and cause recurrent decay.

The CAD/CAM technology allows for a much more conservative approach than a crown is. These restorations are called onlays. This is a much more conservative preparation of the tooth where we remove only diseased tooth structure and old restorative material. This is far better for the tooth because you are conserving healthy tooth  structure and not cutting away healthy tooth structure in order to make a crown or cap.

These restorations either crowns or onlays are both done in about an hour and a half. You will go home with the final restoration fully bonded and polished and not have to come back for a second appointment in order to cement the restoration in. This technology is designed to save you time in your busy hectic  lives. We have been using this technology for 7 years and this is truly one of the most innovative and wonderful technologies that has come to dentistry.