Milford Dentists Enlighten Us On Replacing Old Amalgam Fillings With White Fillings

Milford Dentists’ Andrea Clarke clarifies why people should seek to have their old mercury amalgam/black fillings with white fillings instead of porcelain overlays or dental crowns and how she goes about doing this with the minimum discomfort for her patients.  As Andrea explains, she uses a powerful suction when sectioning out the old mercury amalgam to ensure that all the amalgam waste is removed and none of it enters the mouth. Whilst using rubber dental dam a smaller suction pipe or saliva ejector removes any mercury vapour and saliva from the mouth, which most people find very comfortable and prefer treatment with this rather than without. As Andrea says, “Sometimes there is a bit of fiddling around to put the rubber dam on, but once in place the whole procedure takes less time”.

Andrea goes on to expound, “Placing white composite resin fillings and porcelain dental crowns and overlays is all about perfect bonding technique. The great thing about adhesive dentistry or bonding white restorations to teeth is that the bond strengths are very strong. When biomimetic principles are followed the bond between your tooth and the new white filling or dental crown/overlay can mimic the strength of your original tooth. Using dental rubber dam allows the tooth/teeth to be isolated from the moisture of your mouth i.e. your saliva. Using dental dam increases the predictability of the bonding process making for long lasting beautiful and strong tooth coloured restorations”.

During a recent procedure to remove the amalgam fillings, Andrea listed the three reasons she thought it prudent to do so for this particular patient. As she observed, “The old silver amalgam fillings are small and no structural cracks have formed in the tooth. The patient has requested just fillings to be placed - this is often due to cost as a filling option costs less than a dental crown option. Also there are long term problems with the overall health of the mouth and a more costly dental crown/overlay is not indicated e.g. maybe the patient has gum infection which may lead to easily tooth loss or maybe the patient has active tooth decay that ideally should be brought under control first.”

For more information on this subject and to find out more about Milford Dentists, please visit their website at http://www.milforddentists.co.nz .