dental question

[JAK]

Has anyone heard that regular fillings are bad for you health? The dentist that we go to here will not do regular fillings, only the white fillings (which are over $100 each out of pocket for us even with insurance coverage). Both my dk's and myself all have cavities which need to be filled and I can't afford to pay their prices. I can however find another dentist who will do them (regular ones) and then I'll only have to pay about $20 per filling.

The one dentist doesn't do the regular ones because the office believes they are bad for your health- is this true?

Amy/CO- what does your dental office do?

[RCT]

Jen, I haven't ever heard that they were bad for you....all of my fillings are silver or regular...
I would go with the dentist who will do a regular filling...JMHO


I too would be curious to know what Amy/Co office thinks.....:rolleyes:

[AnnW]

I know you shouldn't get mercury fillings, but I am not sure if all silver fillings are mercury.
Here is a link....
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/amalgam.htm

[Amy]

There are two types of fillings you can get:

Amalgam-which is your metal ones

Resin-clear plastic one.

I just talked to my neighbor and he said that some dentists have beliefs that amalgam fillings are bad for your teeth and body etc.. These dentists gravitate towards wholistic thinking when practicing dentistry. My dentist DOES do amalgam and says if they are done well, then he believes they are great for restoring your tooth.

My mouth is filled with amalgam fillings and my dentist always comments that they were done really well by my old dentist and I have never had any problems.

I probably wouldn't buy into the resin ones because they are so much more expensive. Our insurance covers 80% of an AMALGAM rate and any $$ over that is out of our pockets. My dentist would cost me well over $120!

So either your dentist is of the earthy crunchy type or he is putting the scare tactic into you so you will buy into his more expensive procedure. I worked for a Vet like that. He always "scared" clients into getting "preventive" tests for their beloved pets just to hike the bill up.

[JAK]

Thanks Amy. I had two of the resins done at the office before and it was almost $300 out of my pocket. I don't want to spend that kind of money again unless I have to. I know the resin ones look better, but I'm not a model and my dks cavities are in their baby teeth. I'm wondering too how we all go from having no cavities to having more than one each in 6 months. We do brush, I guess I need to be better about the flossing thing. I'm going to call around tomorrow and see if I can find another dentist.