Mercury Amalgam Filling Removal Treatment
Your teeth communicate. It begins with their acceptance and rejection of treatments performed on them. One such concern is mercury amalgam filling removal procedure, that has exponentially grown steadily over the past years.
Amalgam as a material is made up of a mixture metals with a potential to restore the cavities in your set of smiles. However, here it contains a high amount of mercury, a substance known to be at its highest toxicity level for a human mouth. Although amalgam fillings only contain a small amount of the same, it has the potential to lead to poisoning and other oral health problems.
Over time this became a concern for patients, who today remain in search of an excellent cosmetic dental service offering the removal of these amalgam fillings in the safest and most budgeted manner possible.
What Is Removal of Mercury Filling?
The only way to perform this cosmetic dental treatment is by not using these amalgam fillings and help the corrective replacement procedure of the deteriorating amalgam fillings with either a tooth-coloured composite resin or porcelain filling as well as work with more natural and aesthetic materials, alongside other non-toxic and more biocompatible materials.
Today, if someone is asked, most certainly they respond with an affirmation to have their mercury fillings removed. This becomes recognised as one reads about the number of silver fillings in our mouth being linked to the mercury levels present in one’s body. Because in the field of cosmetic dentistry, amalgam fillings (a mixture of copper, silver, tin and about 50% mercury) have been widely used.
The convenience of their strong properties and lower cost gave it an edge in being used to fill in the cracks of your teeth or repair fractures. However, with advances in technology and materials, today the tendency to avoid metal fillings has increased. Particularly, when patients realised that this chemical element is present in the water sources, air and in many of the foods one eats (especially seafood).
Mercury has proven to be dangerous when it is in a long-term contact with a potential to lead to the symptoms that can trigger issues of anxiety, bad temper, memory loss, headaches, appetite loss, anaemia, lower resistance to infection and weakness in a healthy body and mind.
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FAQ's
Amalgam removal procedure is like any other cosmetic dental treatment, a lot less painful and a lot more determined towards your safety and a beautiful smile.
What are the benefits of removing your mercury fillings?
Exposure and contact with mercury for an untimed duration can result in a lot of physical disadvantages. Therefore, to enable patients in possessing a “peace of mind” with ease of knowing that the mouths are free of toxic elements is one such advantage. Moreover, replacing these fillings with natural looking composite resins carries great aesthetics benefit. Patients tend to not feel self-conscious about the look of their smile.
Some people who have experienced symptoms related to mercury poisoning will probably see them disappear or considerably reduced.
Why should one get mercury amalgam fillings removed?
Being a composition of various metals, it does not chemically bond with tooth structure like composite or porcelain can. Also, when the temperature fluctuates in mouth it may contract and expand. Due to this nature, amalgam is placed with mechanical interlocking by keeping the base of the cavity wider than the top of the cavity. This cavity form exaggerates the flexing of the tooth structure under biting forces as well as temperature changes, thus, causing the tooth structure to weaken and result in the tooth cracking or fracturing over time, requiring additional treatment or in some cases extraction.
Is it necessary to get it removed?
Again, it all depends on your needs and wants. If your metal fillings are worn, cracked, or if there is severe decay beneath the metal filling, then you should get them removed. However, if your old fillings are fine, but you want to avoid the effects of mercury on your health, a removal procedure can be opted for. For the dental practitioners at Local Dental Clinic are trained to provide you with the safest treatment possible.
Please note that mercury amalgams release some amount of mercury in the form of vapours. This happens specially during brushing, chewing, grinding, or drinking hot liquids, and in the placement or removal process.
How long does it take to remove amalgam fillings?
One can be back to performing their regular activities in no time as most quadrant appointments are around 60-90 minutes in duration.
Are amalgam filling removals painful?
This treatment, being similar to having a regular filling or cavity treated (along with all the safety protocols), eliminates/minimised the amount of pain by involving the use of local anaesthesia to anaesthetise the affected teeth.
What happens post amalgam removal?
After the removal of mercury fillings, Local Dental Clinic strives to restore your tooth back to its form and function by filling the spaces left by the removed amalgam. Ranging from a simple composite filling to a full restoration; depending on the size of the filling and the condition of the treated tooth; our dentists apply restoration options that entail minimized risk of metal toxicity in your body and amplify your teeth’s health and appearance.
What are the steps to remove amalgam fillings safely?
To proactively address the issue of mercury in bloodstream and the risk of mercury poisoning during the procedure, removing amalgam fillings involves a carefully planned procedure.
After carefully removing the decay, the dentist isolates the tooth with a rubber dam or cotton rolls. If the cavity involves the proximal (side) part of the tooth, a matrix band is used to create perfect contact with the adjacent tooth. A high-volume suction device in the patients’ mouth, all to prevent any excess mercury vapour being re-ingested.
The inside of the cavity is then etched with the tool for about 10-15 seconds. This tool, a dental etchant, is then thoroughly washed with water spray for 5-10 seconds and dried gently to achieve a matt dry surface. A bonding agent is then applied to the inside of the cavity and thoroughly rubbed inside the cavity walls. It is then gently blown dry on for 5-10 seconds for the solvents to evaporate.
The next step is to cure it with an LED dental light and set the bonding agent. This curing light is generally blue with a narrow spectrum of 400-500 nanometre in range.
Once the bond application is finished, the cavity is then ready to accommodate composite resin in small increments with a flowable/packable quality. Once the desired shape is achieved, the dentist removes the isolation and trim the filling to give it an ideal shape to match the appearance/bite of your teeth.
A ‘silver’ or mercury filling is usually removed in quadrants, which means there is a removal of all the amalgams in a quarter of the mouth at a time as an added safety precaution.
Is it expensive to remove mercury amalgam fillings?
Removing and/or replacing it with a safer material is comparable in price to a regular filling, however, this may vary from patient to patient. Hence, here one must consider that the mouth is thoroughly examined in the beginning of any cosmetic dental treatment. This initial exam typically includes x-rays, intraoral pictures, and dental and medical history. Other than this, a comprehensive exam to determine other factors, such as, is also conducted:
- the number of mercury amalgam fillings you need to have removed
- the size of your mercury filling or fillings
- the location of your metal fillings
These attributes will largely determine the cost of the procedure, along with a full scan to identify the condition of your metal fillings. So, if the amalgam filling is leaking, or has affected the health or composition of the tooth, or if there is some decay in or around it, costs can go up considerably.
There are cases where replacing your fillings will mean placing, as there would not be enough tooth structure to support a regular filling. Hence, while estimating the cost of the basic and a safe amalgam removal, you also need answer to the following:
- Is the mercury filling so big that you need further restoration of your tooth?
- If so, what kind of restoration do you need: a crown, an inlay, onlay or just a regular composite filling?
What is a regular composite filling?
Commonly known as “white” filling, this tooth-coloured plastic filling is the most used dental material for restoring small cavities. The fundamental composition of this material is mixture of resin matrix like bisphenol A-glycidyl methacrylate (BISGMA) or urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA) and filler like silica. With different combination of these ingredients, composite resin can be flowable or stiff packable.
Dental composite resins also come in many different shades and this allows us to match the colour of the resin with your tooth in case the filling is in high aesthetic zone. This material requires to stick/ bond with the tooth structure and for generally which dental bonding agents are used.
