Why Choose Los Gatos Dental Group for Safe Mercury Filling Removal?
Biocompatible Tooth-Colored Fillings
SMART Recommended Methods Used
In-House Savings Plan Available
Why is it that when one part of you is ill or injured, your whole body can feel the effects?
That’s because the human body is not an organized arrangement of individual parts, but a systemic
connection of parts that make up a greater whole. As part of that whole, your mouth has an important
role to play, and not only as the port of entry for nutrition. The health of your mouth and your dental
treatments can impact your overall wellbeing. That’s why your dentist in Los Gatos always
considers your general health when making oral care recommendations. One of those recommendations is
often the safe mercury fillings filling removal in our Los Gatos, CA dental office and replacement by
our skilled dentists.
Why Do I Need to Remove Metal Fillings?
Toward the start of the 19th century, dentists began to use a few different metals to repair tooth
decay, or cavities. Gold, silver or tin were softened and pressed into a cavity to rebuild a damaged
tooth. Eventually, mercury was added to a combination of these metals. Mercury is a heavy metal that
helps bind other metals in order to create a stronger amalgam.
Not long after mercury in fillings became popular, the safety of this metal came into question.
Metal fillings now and then would crack over time, allowing mercury to leak into the mouth’s
soft tissue. In addition, once released, mercury can vaporize and be inhaled into the body. Research
has also shown that these Mercury vapors are released, well beyond the acceptable safe levels, when
the fillings are removed. Although the findings are not 100 percent certain, there is some evidence
of a link between mercury in the body to the development of multiple sclerosis and certain cancers.
That is why here at Los Gatos Dental Group, we have an established protocol for protecting the
patient and the staff from these vapors.
What Replaces Mercury Fillings?
Your Los Gatos dentist can safely remove mercury-based fillings from your mouth using a safe
procedure. If the filling was loose, then there may be some additional decay underneath that will
need to be removed, as well. Once the tooth is free of decay, a tooth-colored filling is set in
place of the metal one.
Made of composite resin materials, this presents absolutely no health risk and is actually stronger
and better for your tooth. Whereas a metal filling is wedged into a tooth, composite fillings bond
with the remaining tooth structure. Thus, the tooth is made stronger because pressure from biting
and chewing is evenly distributed throughout the tooth, thereby reducing the risk of cracks or
leakage under the filling. Best of all, a tooth-colored filling blends in seamlessly with the
natural color of your smile.
