Problem with Amalgam Fillings

I had to get a dental filling. It was my first one. I’ve been with the same dentist for years, since I was a child actually. He still does those amalgam fillings. I’d asked for a white filling, but he said they’re not a good idea on back teeth. I’m wondering if I could be allergic to the filling. Ever since I had the filling placed, my cheek has been itchy and swollen. What do I do? Is there an option for back teeth?

Cady

Dear Cady,

I’m guessing your dentist is getting close to retirement age and he is just used to doing things the old-fashioned way. When he said that white (composite) fillings aren’t good for back teeth, that was probably just him deflecting the fact that he probably doesn’t know how to place them.

Composite and amalgam fillings have completely different bonding procedures so I wouldn’t pressure the dentist to do it if he wasn’t up to date on the technique.

That being said, it sounds like you are having an allergic reaction to this filling. You’ll want to have it switched out for a composite. However, don’t have your dentist switch it out. There is a high mercury content in amalgam fillings. Because of that, you need to have a sanitary amalgam removal. This will protect you from inhaling any mercury or mercury vapors.

Because your dentist doesn’t know how to place composite fillings, he definitely won’t know how to safely remove the silver fillings.

You’ll want to see either a holistic dentist or a mercury-free dentist. Either one of them will have the experience and the equipment to safely do the procedure.

You may want to consider moving on to a dentist who is a bit better at keeping up with the advances in his profession. At this point, just about all dentists are doing composite fillings at this point.

This blog is brought to you by Naperville Dentist Dr. David Newkirk.