Are Your Teeth Slowly Killing You, Without You Feeling a Thing?

Online, April 22, 2011 (Newswire.com) - When you have a cavity that needs to be filled, your dentist makes an important decision that will affect you for the rest of your life. That decision is: What material am I going to put in this patient's mouth?

Most people think the simple choice is between silver amalgam fillings, which contain toxic levels of mercury, or a tooth-covered resin that is favored by mosts dentists in the United States. What most people don't know is that your dentist is actually choosing from up to 7,000 different materials to put in your mouth. So how can you be sure he's choosing the material that is right for YOU?

Silver amalgam fillings have been used for decades despite the fact that they are composed of 50% mercury, a toxic poison that penetrates all living cells in the human body and is more toxic than even lead or arsenic. They were originally favored for being cheap and long-lasting, two qualities many people still value considering the 30 million silver fillings that are still placed every year. But with recent studies linking mercury to neurological diseases and deformation in children, perhaps it's time to look further.

Mercury, however, is not the only cause for concern. Other dental materials have been found to cause headaches, breathing difficulties, dizziness and other symptoms. "Consider it this way, just because a material is hypoallergenic and safe for 98% of the population, what if your body falls into the remaining 2%," explains Beverly Hills Biocompatible Dentist Dr. Kourosh Maddahi. "The future of dentistry has to include considering the well-being and health of the patient down the line, and that means using materials that are tested and safe for that person."

You might not object to the occasional headache or dizzy spell. But when the problem is an allergic reaction to something embedded in your mouth, it's not likely to go away. It becomes even harder to accurately diagnose when the problem is related to a tooth filling or crown that doesn't hurt directly. And, according to many dental professionals, that's where the danger lies.

Of the many types of bacteria that live in your mouth, recent studies have linked some of the those bacteria to life-threatening conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, lung disease, cancer and more. This only emphasizes the importance of proper care and handling of your teeth and gums, and as a consumer, there is something you can do to make sure your dentist makes the right decision about what to use in your mouth.

Many dental professionals are turning to an approach called Biocompatible Dentistry, a practice pioneered by Beverly Hills Dentists Kourosh Maddahi and Paul O'Malley. Their goal is to use materials that are not just safe for "most people" but are safe for the individual patient in front of them. Using simple blood testing, they can find out exactly which materials are best for their patients before any dental work is begun.

The test results that come to the doctor are over 30 pages long and indicate each material tested as suitable or not suitable for that patient. The test is done with many different dental products, including composite fillings, crown materials, bridge materials, denture materials, cements and other products that could be used by a dentist.

Most patients will be found to have some materials that are suitable for them that the dentist can choose from. Although this does not guarantee to be a completely safe choice, years of clinical experience with this testing has consistently shown such a choice to be vastly superior and preferable over a dentist's random assumption that each body has the same reaction to these materials.

Any type of dental treatment is designed to become a lasting part of your mouth, whether you have dental implants surgically placed in your jaw bone, or a small filing placed in a back molar. Many dentists claim that their work will last for decades to come, which means that any material they put in your mouth is one you are going to have to live with, good or bad.

So what do you want in your mouth?