Case Study- Safe Amalgam Removal

Mr D presented to the clinic complaining about occasional twinges from his lower molar teeth. He had recently had a check up elsewhere but no problems were detected. His friend sent him along to the clinic recommending us as the place to have mercury amalgam fillings safely removed.

Following on from a discussion about the patients symptoms and concerns we carried out a full clinical examination using magnification and a special light source. We also photographed all of the patients teeth and took some digital xrays. Using one of the big high definition screens that are present in all of the treatment rooms we showed the patient the two teeth that we thought had hidden decay and explained that beneath the cracks in the teeth there was decay present.

To explain how this happened we showed the patient a number of previous cases that we had treated successfully.

Once the patient was happy to have his teeth fixed we booked him back in, made him gently numb using the dental Wand and safely removed the old mercury filling to show the decay underneath. The key to safe amalgam removal is in using sealed off runner dam shown in the picture, pre and post treatment supplements and high volume special suction. We took a great deal of time at the clinic designing our amalgam removal policy and are happy that it offers patients a safe way to replace old mercury fillings. In Mr D’s case the decay was causing the occasional pain on chewing. We also detected decay inside the tooth next to the filled tooth so removed the decay from this as well.

Once the teeth were free from decay we restored them using the Cerec 3D system and 3M Espes filtek Silorane.

The patient left that day and went out for a steak dinner that night! No more pain on chewing and no unsightly black filling.