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Dear Leslie,
Composite fillings are made of plastice (methyl methacrylate)
and crushed quartz. Theye are a long way from being a good restorative
material and more leaching of plastic monomer goes on than leaching of mercury
from amalgams (if they are mixed to the correct ratio that efficiently
incorporates the mercury into the newly created alloy - so that there is not an
excess of mercury to leach out and shows as "pitting" over the surface
of the filling).
No poison is good for anyone. The questions are
"Which poison will we implant?" and "Which poison is more
likely to cause symptoms?" -- and there are other questions,
ie: "Which material will last longer?" and "Which material
is acceptable to the patient in a cosmetic sense?".
Lots of people have arthritis and have no teeth, at all
- but they do have dentures made of methyl methacrylate.
Some people are hypersensitive to certain elements and
compounds, eg: fluoride, penicillin, etc.. When
looking at heavy metal poisoning there are 3 primary symptoms, ie;
dementia, diarrhoea and dermatitis. After that you look for a whole
range of conditions from abdominal pain, muscle twitching, cardiac
arrythmia, tunnel vision, birth deformities,
etc..
In the mouth, it is easy to spot an adverse reaction to
a filling because the mucous membrane (lining of the mouth) is in contact with
the filling and an erythematous rash is produced in the same way as a
"patch test" for an allergy.
You may well be a person who is hypersensitive to amalgam
and, in that case, the culprit should be eliminated.
However, composite fillings in many people are cariogenic, ie:
actually cause decay, which will destroy the tooth and the composite
fillings have to be removed if caught in time.
If composite were a genuine alternative to amalgam,
there would be no amalgam. That is the dentists' dilemma. Ugly
amalgam is still an infinitely better restorative material than the pretty
composite.
With any poison, a good diet supplemented with the
anti-poisons (eg: vitamin B and zinc in the case of mercury and vitamin C in the
case of lead, etc.) is one's best protection.
The body and the environment are too complex to make
simplistic diagnoses. If there is a one-to-one/cause-to-cure situation
then that is great - but can one be sure?
Yours sincerely,
John Wilson, BDS.
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