TYPICAL SENSATIONALIST ARTICLE ON SILVER FILLINGS

The Chicago Tribune recently (2006) published a story about mercury and amalgam with the  sensationalist headline, "Are your teeth toxic? The mercury in `silver’ fillings would be hazardous waste in a river—yet it’s sitting in your mouth.”   The American Dental Association chided the Tribune for irresponsibly “basing health reporting on little more than three emotional, personal anecdotes” and advised that “there isn’t a single credible scientific study linking dental amalgam to serious health problems.” They also pointed out that “vulnerable people suffering from multiple sclerosis, migraines or other debilitating illnesses who read your article could think that removing their silver-colored fillings might offer a miracle cure. Giving people false hope and luring them toward unnecessary treatment is cruel and unethical.” They concluded by providing a list of the many highly credible scientific third parties that support amalgam safety (including the Mayo clinic) and pointed to last year’s independent panel review of scientific literature that found no connection whatsoever between amalgam and adverse health effects.  The chastened Tribune published the response shortly afterwards.  Such articles, largely based on emotional stories or unscientific “studies” are commonplace today and unwary patients can easily believe they are “proven facts”.  Our office certainly does place far more white than silver fillings, but silver fillings remain a perfectly safe alternative.

            At Crossoak Family Dentistry, PC, we are WILLING to replace old silver fillings

            with white ones if our patients request it, but we want to make sure there is no

confusion:  the reason to get white fillings is primarily COSMETIC---not health related.  All credible scientific studies show that silver fillings are a safe, durable,

and inexpensive way to restore teeth.  We DO expect white fillings (which are

somewhat more expensive) to eventually replace silver fillings entirely as the

durability of white fillings continues to improve and the cost difference decreases, but only because no one will want “ugly” silver fillings if they can get equally good “pretty” white ones for the same price.