I looked up quite a few sites, Trudy, and came to the conclusion that ceramic or clear plastic would be the choice for me.
I don't want metal either glued on or screwed in anywhere. Apart from anything the metal might do physically, I don't really want it acting as an aerial in my mouth for any one of the million signals floating around at any one time. I was able to get hold of my former dentist, now retired, and he gave me the name Procera extra strength, which could be made into a Maryland bridge. Also he gave me the name of a technician in Perth (Australia), who gave me the name of a practice only 90 mins or so from here, who used to use him but now have their own technician. At his recommendation I have an appointment Monday pm. The other thing my old dentist mentioned was an all resin bridge, pretty good but not as strong, which has fibres inside. I think this is what I think of as plastic. I think there is a better chance of correct colour matching with these two kinds than with what I have had previously. There was an interesting paragraph in Walter Lasts "Physical Cancer Therapies": The pink colour of dentures may be due to heavy metals, commonly mercury or cadmium. If you cannot get a guarantee that the coloring is free of heavy metals, it is safer to ask for clear plastic dentures made of Methyl Methacrylate, or Flexite for partial dentures. Use plastic denture teeth rather than porcelain teeth, which are based on aluminium oxide and other metals. Change metal bridges and partial dentures to clear plastic. Even gold can be a problem because to make it cheaper, it is commonly blended with 20% of the more harmful palladium. A small amount of gold as for one crown may be acceptable, but as a general rule keep your mouth free of metals, and make sure only metal-free plastics are used as replacement. The above seems to be correct, as I note from the various sites that there does seem to be a fair amount of metal in the various porcelains, apart from metal backing used as wings or aprons glued to adjacent teeth. http://www.mynewsmile.com/porcelaincrownfrontteeth.htm said It used to be that any crown had to have some metal in it for strength. Today, we can make them out of all porcelain, meaning that they can look very esthetic and very natural. Unfortunately, most dental schools emphasize the use of porcelain fused to metal crowns, and that's the only crown many dentists know how to do for front teeth. But porcelain fused to metal crowns for front teeth look opaque, unnatural, and tend to develop a dark line at the gumline after a few years.... BONDED ALL PORCELAIN - This is the type of crown that a true cosmetic dentist will almost always place on a front tooth. It is made entirely of porcelain or other ceramic material. Now the type of porcelain used for crowns for teeth by itself is not very strong. The way a cosmetic dentist will handle this is he or she will bond the crown to the tooth, thus giving it plenty of strength to function. However, since dental schools do not normally train dentists in the bonding techniques required to place these crowns, you should be careful to only have them done by expert cosmetic dentists .... EXTRA STRENGTH ALL PORCELAIN - There are some new ceramic materials that have extra strength - so much so that they don't have to be bonded. Some general dentists like to place these crowns on front teeth because they don't require specialized training to place, and they don't have the esthetic disadvantages of metal. However, they aren't as esthetic as the bonded all porcelain crowns. Some brand names of crowns that are this type are Procera crowns, InCeram crowns, Cercon Zirconia crowns, Lava crowns, and Cerec crowns. ... Dental ceramics, also termed porcelains, have a composite structure consisting of a crystalline phase or phases within a glassy matrix. Dental ceramics consist of oxides, largely of metals and silica, and are essentially inert materials, but we should be aware that they can be attacked by acidulated phosphate fluoride (APF) gel.... In-Ceram is a glass infused ceramic used for crowns (Fig. 2). It consists of a core containing 90% alumina, which is built up on a refractory die. (What!) In-Ceram Spinnel is a similar type of material but uses the less hard magnesium spinnel (MgAl 2O4) instead of alumina. The material is specifically designed for inlays and onlays. Most recently introduced is In-Ceram Zirconia, which has a very high flexural strength. A novel material called Techceram has been introduced in the UK, which also relies on having a glass infused core. The core is built of small 'splats' of alumina sprayed from a plasma gun at a rotating refractory die.... Glass ceramics are polycrystalline solids prepared by the controlled crystallisation of glasses. The best known of these systems, Dicor, is based on mica crystals although there is another, Cerapearl, based on hydroxyapatite and experimental lithia-based materials.24 A Dicor restoration is made by investing a wax pattern and casting. Heating the reinvested crown for six hours at 1070°C carries out controlled crystallisation, termed 'ceraming'. This causes the Mica to form a strong 'house of cards' structure, which makes fracture propagation equally difficult in all directions........ Procera AllCeram is a densely sintered, high purity alumina core on which low fusing porcelain is built.36, 37AllCeram cores have some of the highest measurements of flexural strength yet recorded for a commercially available system. Despite this, even stronger materials based on zirconia are being developed. .. A mixture of alumina and binder is pressed onto the dies under pressure and, before sintering, machined to the required thickness ... It is possible to make small anterior bridges with most of these systems, but with the exception of Vita's In-Ceram few manufacturers actively promote this because of the risk of fracture, especially at the connectors. The Procera AllCeram specifies a minimum connector height of 3 mm and a maximum span of 11 mm http://www.dentalcaresouthperth.com.au/design.html says Maryland Bridges use metal aprons while Encore Bridges utilize fiber-reinforced resin. Strong cements have made this very conservative procedure more reliable. There is always the possibility this style of bridge will debond and require recementing. When the adjacent teeth are healthy unrestored teeth, the Maryland and Encore Bridges are excellent choices. Well, - as my metal bridge debonded three times while I had it in my mouth, causing who knows what infection in my body until it was fixed, I see no reason to prefer it over non-metal. The more I read, the more I think the non-porcelain sounds good. Encore bridge http://www.bitein.com/drelit03.htm The porcelain seems to need some sort of metal component in any blend. Rowena http://www.tandkliniek-duitsland.nl/tandimplantaten/tandimplantaten.htm Rowena ,maybe this website can tell you more... in several languages. Trudy -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
