Posts
One of my good friends in Buffalo sent me the following email:
"I went to the work holiday luncheon yesterday and ate a candy cane which I didn't really even want. There was his one little piece that wasn't melting in spite of sucking on it for 15 minutes, plus there seemed to be a piece stuck in my gum. Finally I gave up and threw away the piece that wouldn't melt. At dinner, I still felt some roughness on the gum/tooth area, checked it out and found that a piece of my tooth was gone. Damn candy cane!
Sorry for the quality of the pics, but can you give me any advice on repairing this before I see my dentist?"
So what do you think that my response to him was?
"Well I now have proof that you don't read my blogs. I have been imploring my patients for years to remove their old mercury fillings because EVERY single tooth will suffer the same fate...fracture of the natural tooth. Unfortunately, most dentists will insist on a crown instead of placing a well done bonded resin under rubber dam.
High school science: all metals expand when heated...hot coffee, tea, pizza etc. teeth are made of glass and expand very little and develop micro fractures instead. At some point, every tooth with an old metal filling will suffer the same fate as yours. I have a quarter century experience with posterior resins and they are fabulous. Unfortunately, dentists make 3-4 times more by doing a crown instead of a filling. In fact, they will tell you that what I do will fall because the material is too weak. No they just don't have the talent or skill (or ethics) to do resins well. This tooth now needs a crown.
Be well and thanks for checking in."
No tooth with a large silver mercury filling will survive indefinitely intact. EVERY SINGLE ONE will ultimate fracture the tooth just like in the above photo.
Everyone of my friend's teeth can be restored with a bonded resin filling if he so desired. The likelihood is that he will have 4 crowns placed by his regular dentist.
Let's do the math: 4 crowns @$1650= $6600
4 Direct resin bonded fillings in my office @$400=$1600 (These are the most
complex resins and cost the most)
Does anyone want to argue with me that $1600 is a lot less than $6600?
Dr. Benjamin is so expensive. Really?
Think about this!
And for the sake of your bank account....Replace your old mercury fillings before they split your teeth.
