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Home » Health Articles » So Wheres The Silver Lining

So Where’s The Silver Lining?

Baby boomers beware! What you have been told all these years about silver fillings may not be all they are cracked up to be. Truth is, it may be time to retire those old silver fillings, also known as amalgams.

Post WWII children grew up in an era in which there was a high consumption of sugar-laden foods. Foods like your favorite cereal, sodas, candy bars and desserts. The amount of sugar filled foods for that generation and the current generation is staggering. Additionally, during this period the tooth strengthening benefits of fluoridated water were still undiscovered.

These two factors combined were a major contributing factor to reception rooms of every dentist office in America overflowing with unsuspecting patients. Unsuspecting in that the solution dentistry provided for all of these teeth pitted with cavities and resembling the surface of the moon was an inexpensive silver tooth patch invented in 1894.

Most people were led to believe that silver fillings were actually good for them. Unfortunately, when the dentist patted you on the head, sent you on your way with your lip hanging off of your face and a shiny toy ring in your pocket, he or she failed to tell you, "Oh by the way, your shiny new teeth are packed with mercury and they are going to wear out someday. Only next time there won't be a pretty ring in your pocket - just a hefty bill."

Why Do Fillings Wear Out?

Several factors cause the demise of amalgam restoration. Size, personal hygiene, and diet seem to have the greatest influence on their life expectancy. When a tooth is filled, amalgam is packed into a hole created by bacteria and your dentist's drill. The bigger the hole, the larger the filling used to repair the damage is and the weaker a tooth becomes. Weaker teeth are doomed to fracture because a large filling acts like a wedge, similar to a wedge used to split firewood.

Chewing even soft foods wears the surface of each filling and intensifies the wedging. Hard foods like Corn Nuts and ice wreak havoc on your teeth and should be completely avoided. Acids found in citrus products, coffee, cola products, and foods containing sugar cause the surface of the filling to become rusted and pitted, like a rusty old tin can.

The Truth About Mercury

There are two primary areas to consider regarding mercury. One is how pliable a material it is. The other is how toxic it is.

Mercury is placed in thermometers for a reason; it is very sensitive to temperature change. Even a two-degree difference will register on a thermometer due to the mercury expanding. With mercury being as much as 55% of the substance in an amalgam filling, imagine what that is doing to your tooth structure.

Incredibly it seems that temperature fluctuation in the foods we eat cause the most dramatic breakdown effects in the teeth. When we eat hot or cold foods our fillings expand and contract more that the teeth they are placed inside. Since these fillings are packed tightly into the tooth there is absolutely no room for change.

A can of soda pop placed in a freezer provides an example of two materials expanding at different rates, left long enough and it will explode. Although not as dramatic, the pressures associated with changing mouth temperatures does create microscopic fractures in your teeth, similar to cracks in the windshield of a car. These cracks continue to grow and provide a convenient hiding place for cavity causing bacteria. Even the best brushing and flossing techniques are little match for this type of cavity, and left untreated they can cause large portions of your tooth to break.

Many people don't realize that the mercury in your silver fillings just happens to be number two on the list of the most toxic elements known to man. In California all Amalgam manufacturers, as of December 1993, must display the following warning.

Warning - This Office uses amalgam-filling materials, which contain and expose you to Mercury, a chemical known to the state of California to cause birth defects and other reproductive harm. Please consult your dentist for more information.

Some countries have actually banned the use of mercury altogether. In the United States dentists cannot just throw old mercury down the sink. They have to treat it like the toxic waste it is.

Treatment Options

Fortunately there are now alternatives to silver fillings. New types of replacements have revolutionized dental care. Tooth colored restorations made out of porcelain or plastic can be safely bonded (glued) into place creating a much stronger and more stress resistant chewing surface.

However, there is a downside. Be prepared to pay a little more for these types of restorations because the materials used are more expensive and more difficult for your dentist to place. Also, don't be surprised if your insurance company saddles you with more of the share of the additional fees. It may take years for them to discover how long term benefits of bonded fillings out way the increase of up front costs.

The question you must ask yourself in any health decision you make is, "What is my health worth?" Your answer will help you find your own silver lining while maintaining a safe, healthy and beautiful smile.

Copyright: © 2004 by Dr. Scott Kiser

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your web site, or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Ford Has A Better Idea

Ford announced two milestones this week. The first is a new CEO coming from outside the company, in this case Boeing. The second is a restructuring plan that everybody knew was coming. We just didn't know how deep, or how far they would cut. This company is very quickly becoming a case study at Business School for how NOT to run a company. The company has a management team that has been asleep at the switch for at least 25 years. You would think they woke up this morning for the first time, and said we have to cut everywhere.

Let's start with what's missing from the plan, the MASTER plan that Ford is now proposing. I have reviewed all publicly disseminated documents and this is what I conclude. I don't see a word anywhere talking about "LET'S MAKE CARS OF HIGH QUALITY THAT PEOPLE WANT TO BUY."

The only thing these guys talk about is financial engineering. They've blown it, they've blown it so bad, that the question is, are they so far down in the hole that they can't dig themselves out. They may be at that point. Let's deal with reality. America is NOW a high cost producer of just about anything that involves manufacturing. In 1900, half our population was involved in agriculture. Think, half of us were farmers, or farming related.

With the continued industrialization of this country, we moved from the farm to machines, to manufacturing. America was a manufacturing powerhouse for decades. The latest census shows that we are a 75% service society, and about 4% agriculture. The rest is manufacturing, and that sector will continue to decline.

Automobile manufacturing is the tip of the problem. We will come to a point perhaps, where there will be little to no car manufacturing in this country. It's sad, but it is what it is. We have to deal with it. Ford has not wanted to deal with it for decades. They wait till now to say, we have a problem, "Hello, anybody home, are you listening."

I was talking to an individual recently who has sold Lincoln cars (owned by Ford) for 25 years. He told me about a woman that bought a Ford Navigator, and drove immediately from the dealership on a trip to Florida. The horror show began in New Jersey. Windows started to open and close on their own. Internal lights went on and off. By the time she made it to Maryland, she had to leave the car at a Ford dealership.

Two weeks later, the company decided to give her a new car. Apparently while building the car, a worker put some kind of sharp tool through the wiring harness in the engine compartment. The shorts were everywhere, and affecting every major electronic component of the vehicle. This is not an isolated incident. Ford use to advertise, "Where quality is number 1." Had they put quality in their cars through the years, they wouldn't have a problem today.

What do the people who run Ford drink at night? What do they smoke? Do they think everyone else outside their company is functioning in the same manner that they are. The Japanese continue to set a high standard. The standard may be so high that we Americans may not be able to reach it anymore. Is that a reason for Ford not to try?

Ford has 75,000 hourly workers in the United States. The company has offered to buy out all of them. If you have a FULL year on the job, you get a $100,000 buyout, and healthcare benefits for 6 months. If you have either 30 years on the job, or you are age 55 with 15 years or more on the job, you get $140,000 to leave immediately. You also get to keep your pension, but you give up retirement health care coverage.

Workers are also being offered college benefits with 8 other options. These are people who in a good year are use to making a $100,000 with overtime. Where do we stand now? You have a 100% UNHAPPY workforce. You know how a car spins its wheels in the snow. You are going to have every worker at Ford spinning his wheels, do I take the deal, do I not take the deal. They will be flipping coins trying to figure it out. Meanwhile the executive ranks are going to be saying to themselves, "What am I doing here."

The whole game plan is about as disruptive to a corporation as disruptive can be. How is anything going to get done including manufacturing well designed cars that people are comfortable buying?

Wait, there's more?

This whole deal has been announced before the new CEO, Alan Mulally of Boeing takes over in the next couple of weeks. Is their any reason why this announcement couldn't wait two weeks for the new man to come in? Ford made a CONSCIENCE decision to announce immediately. They didn't want their new CEO to take the pubic hit for adverse public reactions that are going to come from the latest restructuring plan.

Can Ford come back?

It's really a good question. The answer is that it's going to be tough under all scenarios. The best bet they have going for them is bringing in an OUTSIDER. Einstein once said, "The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them." I believe this is a cardinal rule of management as well. The problems of a company cannot be solved by the same executives who were there when the problems were created.

The executives now in charge at Ford are part of the problem. They in fact are the problem. They have too much invested in an old way of thinking, an old management style that is no longer appropriate for the 21st century. In fact, it hasn't been appropriate for 25 years, which is why the Japanese are eating Ford for lunch. It may still be too little, too late, and what about QUALITY and DESIGN, still not a word from Ford.

Copyright 2006 Richard Stoyeck