Silver fillings often last in
excess of 15 years. Most plastic tooth colors fillings last far
less. It is not uncommon to find silver fillings over 20 years of
age, still serving.
Is there a danger from mercury
in silver fillings? Mainstream medicine and science say "no." The
Multiple Sclerosis organization has disavowed any link between
silver fillings and M.S. and Consumer Reports stills discounts any
danger from silver restorations. I have them in my mouth and place
them in my family's mouths. One of my two silver fillings was done
over 30 years ago at Camp Pendleton, California.
We offer tooth colored
plastic restorations in posterior teeth, but unless there are
special circumstances such as cracks or extremely small filling
size, we normally recommend silver in back teeth.
If you are hung up on the issue,
I have no problem with doing posterior composites, it's just most
people are better served by silver.
Speaking of which, we use
Dispersealloy, which is a premium dispersed phase modern silver
restorative material.
We use the German "Gluma"
desensitizer which reduces postoperative sensitivity to cold in
silver restorations.
Pain
Control
Pain control is very important
to dentistry. Nobody likes shots, but if your care calls for one,
there are special things we do that reduce discomfort. One solution is the placement of
topical anesthesia. We use
a small gauge needle, injecting so as to push the anesthetic ahead
of the needle, slowly, and with the use of distraction techniques such as
shaking the lip, pressure, and other "tricks of the professionals,"
it can be used to reduce discomfort for nearly everyone to acceptable levels, or
better.