Episode 007 – Dental Fillings

SHOW NOTES:

Links:

General Info
http://worldental.org/teeth/dental-filling-placement-why-and-how/
Cavities
http://www.animated-teeth.com/tooth_decay/t2_tooth_decay_caries.htm
http://bacteriology.suite101.com/article.cfm/oral_bacteria_dental_caries
Types of fillings
http://www.ada.org/public/topics/fillings.asp#amalgam
http://www.enotes.com/nursing-encyclopedia/dental-fillings
Amalgam
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/05/16/mercury-fillings-part-one.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/08/22/FDA-has-the-Audacity-to-Claim-Mercury-is-Completely-Harmless.aspx
http://www.holisticdentalcare.com/Dentalphilosophy.htm
http://www.y2khealthanddetox.com/mercfillings.html
http://www.lenntech.com/processes/heavy/heavy-metals/heavy-metals.htm#ixzz0elniMJjR
Effects of Mercury
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthguidelines/mercuryvapor/recognition.html
http://www.mercola.com/article/mercury/no_mercury.htm
http://www.tennantinstitute.com/TIIM_MAC/How_Mercury_Damages_Your_Brain.html
http://www.tennantinstitute.com/TIIM_MAC/Smoking_Teeth_%28Mercury_Poisoning%29.html
Meridians
http://tuberose.com/meridians.html
http://www.naturalworldhealing.com/Dentalinfo/tooth-organ-emotions.pdf

Why have fillings?
When tooth decay has destroyed a part of the tooth a hole remains. The dentist needs to fill this hole produced by the tooth decay; a dental filling is thus placed. Fillings are also used to repair cracked or broken teeth and teeth that have been worn down from misuse.

Dental Cavities (Caries)

Anatomy of the tooth
- Enamel, which is the hardest tissue found in the human body, covers the surface of the tooth above the gumline. It varies in thickness, thinner near gumline and thicker at cusps. Enamel is more than 95% mineral in composition (majority is hydroxylapatite, which is a crystalline calcium phosphate)
- Dentin, comprises the bulk of a tooth, both its root and inner aspects. Dentin also contains the mineral hydroxyapatite, but to a lesser degree than enamel. Only about two thirds of the content of dentin is mineral so, relatively speaking, dentin is “softer” than enamel.
Formation of cavities
- A cavity occurs where enough of the tooth’s mineral content has been lost that a hole forms. The process by which this occurs is called demineralization and it takes place because of the presence of acids on a tooth’s surface.
- When you eat sweets, Streptococcus mutans transforms the sucrose into sticky polysaccharides which they use to stick to your teeth. As this builds up, other bacteria adhere to is as well, resulting in dental plaque (a biofilm coating your teeth)
- The anaerobic bacteria within the dental plaque utilize sugars you eat (glucose, sucrose, fructose, lactose, or cooked starches) as their food source. The waste products created from digesting these sugars are the acids (especially lactic acid) that cause the demineralization of tooth enamel and dentin.
- The acid actually breaks apart the hydroxylapatite into calcium and phosphate
- When the environment in your mouth is alkaline, your teeth will remineralize

Material for Dental Fillings

The most common material for filling molar teeth is dental amalgam. This metal alloy has low mercury content and is considered to be effective and safe.
Composite resin dental fillings were created as an alternative to traditional metal dental fillings. Tooth fillings colored to look like a natural tooth are known as Composite Resin Dental Fillings,are made of a plastic dental resin. Composite Resin Dental Fillings are strong, durable, and make for a very natural looking smile. Many dental insurance plans cover their use.

Determining if you need a fillings

Dental observation – Some discolored spots on teeth may indicate decay, but not all of them. Your dentist will use other methods in addition to observation like an explorer, a metal instrument with a sharp tip. Healthy tooth enamel is hard and will resist pressure by the explorer. Decayed enamel is softer and the instrument will stick in it slightly.
Dental cavity-detecting dye – This can be rinsed over your tooth. It will stick to decayed areas and rinse cleanly from healthy ones.
Dental x-rays – X-rays can help your dentist see decay that doesn’t show on the surface. However, X-rays often are not accurate in detecting smaller cavities, and existing fillings or other restorations can block the view of decay.

Process of Filling a Tooth

First, the dentist will numb the area around the tooth to be worked on with a local anesthetic. Next, a drill, air abrasion instrument or laser will be used to remove the decayed area. The choice of instrument depends on the individual dentist’s comfort level, training, and investment in the particular piece of equipment as well as location and extent of the decay.
Next, your dentist will probe or test the area during the decay removal process to determine if all the decay has been removed. Once the decay has been removed, your dentist will prepare the space for the filling by cleaning the cavity of bacteria and debris. If the decay is near the root, your dentist may first put in a liner made of glass ionomer, composite resin, or other material to protect the nerve. Generally, after the filling is in, your dentist will finish and polish it.
Several additional steps are required for tooth-colored fillings and are as follows. After your dentist has removed the decay and cleaned the area, the tooth-colored material is applied in layers. Next, a special light that “cures” or hardens each layer is applied. When the multilayering process is completed, your dentist will shape the composite material to the desired result, trim off any excess material and polish the final restoration.

After the Dental Filling

Many people experience some sensitivity after they receive a filling. The tooth may be sensitive to pressure, air, sweet foods or temperature. Composite fillings often cause sensitivity, but other types of filling material can, too.
In most cases, the sensitivity will subside over one to two weeks. Until then, try to avoid anything that causes it. If your tooth is extremely sensitive or your sensitivity does not decrease over about a two-week period, you should contact your dentist’s office.
First type of pain – when you bite, worsening over time. This is caused by a filling that interferes with your bite. Once your anesthetic wears off, you would notice this right away and should contact your dentist. You will need to return to the office to have the filling reshaped.
Second type of pain – very sharp pain that appears only when your teeth touch. This is called galvanic pain and is caused by two metals (one in the newly filled tooth and one in the tooth it’s touching) producing an electric current in your mouth. This would happen, for example, if you had a new amalgam filling in a bottom tooth and had a gold crown in the tooth above it.

Alternatives to Restoring Damaged or Decayed Teeth

Porcelain veneers – a ceramic material is bonded to the front of teeth to change the tooth’s color, size, and/or shape.
Crown – a “cap” that covers a cracked or broken tooth, unfixed by a filling, to approximate its normal size and shape.
Cast gold restorations – this type of restoration is often more costly and may require more than one dental fitting.

Health Effects

Dental Fillings

Amalgam (silver)
- The most common filling material is amalgam.
- Amalgam is a mixture of several metals, including 35% silver, 15% tin or tin and copper, a trace of zinc, and 50% mercury.
- Amalgam has been in use since 1833.
- Before this, the only options were expensive gold fillings or tooth extractions. Consequently, mercury fillings catapulted dentistry from an industry serving only the wealthy, to the health industry of today serving hundreds of millions.

Mercury

Mercury is an incredibly toxic substance that has long been known to be a neurotoxin, affecting the brain, central nervous system, kidneys, and the endocrine system.
It is also very volatile – it gives off mercury vapor when agitated, compressed or exposed to increases in temperature.
Mercury vapor which is colorless, tasteless and odorless- if inhaled into the lungs it can pass into your blood stream for distribution to all body tissues.
According to the ADA, the mercury in amalgam combines with other metals to render it stable and safe for use in filling teeth because the mercury vapors are “locked in”
Mercury vapor detectors placed inside your mouth show that mercury vapor escapes from your dental fillings
Video of mercury vapors released from an amalgam filling http://www.tennantinstitute.com/TIIM_MAC/Smoking_Teeth_%28Mercury_Poisoning%29.html
EPA recommends a limit of 6.8 micrograms of mercury/day for a 150 pound person (0.1mcg/kg of body weight), 2.05mcg/day for a 45lb child
Depending upon agitation, one amalgam filling releases about 15 micrograms of mercury/day (some studies found it to be closer to 42 micrograms/day)
Mercury vapor quickly and easily crosses the brain barrier and the placenta causing problems adults, children and developing fetus.
Mercury vapor causes degeneration of neurons in the central and peripheral nervous systems, resulting in disorders such as:
- Alzheimer’s
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Paralysis
- Migraines
- Epilepsy
- Autism
- Video of how mercury causes degeneration of neurons http://www.tennantinstitute.com/TIIM_MAC/How_Mercury_Damages_Your_Brain.html
- Mercury vapor also damages the lungs, kidneys, immune system, skin and eyes. It is also mutagenic.

Mechanism of Mercury Toxicity

Mercury disrupts your body’s biochemistry and physiology in a number of ways:
Disturbances in the production of larger molecules such as proteins and the nucleic acids which are the core of DNA and RNA.
Disruption in the balance of calcium…not good news when you consider how often we hear of people being diagnosed with osteoporosis. Another point in this area is that the liver and the kidney are two major organs effected by mercury and compromised in their ability to function under mercury’s influence. Vitamin D, which is produced in the skin, is augmented to the much more active hormone forms first by the liver, then the kidney. If their function has been debilitated, the conversion to the more active Vitamin D forms may not occur as well. These activated forms are essential for proper calcium uptake and utilization, hence another nail in the coffin of calcium balance.
Free radical injury to the cells of the body, resulting in oxidative stress. What this means is that the free radicals, which are produced as a result of mercury’s interaction with the cell, result in cellular damage, particularly to the membranes of the cell.
Many proteins need to have phosphorus derivatives attached to them, and mercury will get in the way of this. This may explain, at least to some degree, the incredible fatigue mercury patients experience. The molecule in your body responsible for energy –ATP- looses a phosphate group when you use it and becomes ADP. Then another phosphate must be added to “refurbish” it to ATP, so your body can reuse it and mercury gets in the way of this.
The kidney is of great concern in mercury toxicity. In people who are occupationally exposed, studies have seen the incredible cell damage and protein leakage from the kidney.
Research in the past few years, particularly from Europe has shown the devastating consequences mercury has on the effectiveness of the white blood cell of your immune system. It also can be part of the cause in autoimmune diseases such as the more serious arthritides, allergies, and some researchers believe, multiple sclerosis, lupus and Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Mercury definitely has the ability to cross the placental membranes and so cause health disorders in the unborn child. In studies done by Marsh et al in 1981 and 1987, they showed that mothers with hair mercury levels of 70-640 m g/gm of hair during pregnancy have 30% increased risk of psychomotor and other neurological disorders in their infants. Even as low as 10-20 m g/gm can increase risk to 5% (WHO 1990).

History of mercury being used:

Back in 1840, dentists formed the American Society of Dental Surgeons. Their members were required to sign pledges that they would NOT use mercury in the fillings they placed. There were even cases in New York in 1848 where dentists were fined for malpractice for using mercury in their filling material.
Mercury was referred to as “quicksilver” in North American and in Europe was called “quacksalver” Therefore a “quack” was someone who pretends to cure disease and “salve” was an application for wounds. The term “quack” was first applied to anyone using mercury to cure skin diseases, e.g. the skin lesions associated with tertiary syphilis. The skin rash would disappear, but the disease went deeper into the organs and the nervous system and the person died a very painful death.
Because of the internal feuds, a new dental organization was formed in 1859 – the American Dental Association (ADA). This body did NOT condemn the use of mercury, to the extreme now 140 years later; they try to crucify any dentist who tells his or her patients about the dangers of mercury! Many practitioners believe the ADA actually send undercover personnel into offices of practitioners who dare to speak the truth, to gather information against them and challenge their licenses.
If mercury is so safe, then why have whole countries such as Sweden, Germany, Denmark completely banned it? Some countries have even started to pay to have mercury replaced with resin fillings for its populace. Why can dentists not just throw it down the sink when they work, but have to treat it like the toxic waste it is, containerizing it and ridding of it by very stringent rules? Why have the governing bodies of dentistry in ANY country never been able to prove its safety?

Study on Mercury

Studies by Clarkson (1998) and the World Health Organization related that one amalgam could release anywhere between 3-18 m gm/day of mercury. And yet, a Canadian conference suggested a Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) for mercury of only 1 m gm/day for a person weighing about 150 pounds. People with more than 2-3 amalgams, therefore are above the occupationally exposed acceptable levels.

Energy effects

The Chinese discovered and identified twelve meridians along which energy travels in the human body.
Every organ and every part of your body is directly linked to a specific tooth via these meridians.
This connection is so strong that a biological dentist can often accurately “guess” your dental history simply by reviewing your physical symptoms.
Since metal is conductive, energy will escape via amalgam fillings, resulting in decreased function of the body parts connected to that tooth.
Chart of tooth-organ connections http://www.naturalworldhealing.com/Dentalinfo/tooth-organ-emotions.pdf
Mercury fillings have been banned in several European countries, including: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria

Composite

Composite fillings are a mixture of glass or quartz filler in a resin medium that produces a tooth-colored filling.
Less tooth structure is removed when the dentist prepares the tooth, and this may result in a smaller filling than that of an amalgam.
The major drawback of composite resin fillings is cost. They average one-and-a-half to two times more than the price of amalgam fillings. They also can be stained from drinking coffee and tea.
Some composites contain Bisphenol A (BPA)
- BPA is a xenoestrogen (environmental estrogen, artificially created as a by-product to the chemical industry, and have a stronger effect on the cells than endogenous estrogen)
- BPA mimics the sex hormone estradiol, which can trigger major changes in your body.
  - Structural damage to your brain
  - Hyperactivity
  - Abnormal sexual behavior
  - Increased fat formation and risk of obesity
  - Early puberty and disrupted reproductive cycles
  - growth of uterine fibroids (Episode 001 of Infected!)

Ionomers

Glass ionomers are translucent, tooth-colored materials made of a mixture of acrylic acids and fine glass powders that are used to fill cavities, particularly those on the root surfaces of teeth. Glass ionomers can release a small amount of fluoride that may be beneficial for patients who are at high risk for decay.
Glass ionomers are primarily used in areas not subject to heavy chewing pressure. Because they have a low resistance to fracture, glass ionomers are mostly used in small non-load bearing fillings (those between the teeth) or on the roots of teeth.

Porcelain/Ceramic