Cosmetic dentistry

[Bassman62]

I've always been frightened of dentists since the butchers who used to attack schoolkids in the late 40s/50s when mask was placed over your mouth and nose whilst your arms were held.

The bravest thing I ever did was going dental sick in the army to get out of the company shooting team, I ended up with seven fillings and an extraction and still didn't get out of the shooting team.

[Rupert_Baehr]

Nitrous Oxide is sometimes called 'laughing gas' but it doesn't have that effect on everybody. Sometimes it has a markedly different effect.

 

I must've been about 6 or 7. Mr Powell put the mask over my mouth, but nobody held my arms. A couple of whiffs of fighting gas later and he peered at me to see how I was doing.

 

I had one tooth taken out that day - he had two teeth taken out.

[Twiglet]

As I said in an earlier post, Amalgam fillings are banned in Germany. - Nothing to do with appearance, but rather because: "... It used to be thought that mercury was locked into fillings and could not escape, but research1 has shown that mercury vapour is continuously released from amalgam fillings in the mouth. The act of chewing, especially hot or acidic foods, increases the amount of vapour released and absorbed into the body. Mercury accumulates in the jaw area, the gastro-intestinal tract, the kidney, the liver and other organs and tissue..."

 

"...In Britain the cheapest and most commonly used substance for dental fillings is dental amalgam, a compound containing between 48 and 55% mercury, 33-35% silver, and various amounts of copper, tin, zinc and other metals."

 

Of course, price has nothing to do with it. Britain was also the country where (In the 1960s) "Tetraethyl lead in petrol poses no health risk"

 

Mercury poisoning is all in your mind ... and your liver, kidneys, other organs, soft tissue ...

 

All true - but amalgam is the only filling material available on the NHS in the UK unless it is for a front tooth.

[Anna B]

Will the Dental Hospital (is it still called Charles Clifford Hospital) do cosmetic dental work?

After all theyhave to train dentists, and I would imagine cosmetic work is an important part of the job these days.

[Mecky]

I've been thinking about getting my teeth fixed for a while now. Anybody have any advice on anywhere good in sheffield

 

Don't move to Sudan, your dental work would be pulled out and you would probably be severly punished if not killed

[Halibut]

Don't move to Sudan, your dental work would be pulled out and you would probably be severly punished if not killed

 

You're obsessed! He's hardly like to move to bloody Sudan is he?

[Mecky]

You're obsessed! He's hardly like to move to bloody Sudan is he?

 

And what if Sudan moves to the UK, or rather the mentality of people in Sudan as is happening right now under your nose?

[clairelaw123]

All true - but amalgam is the only filling material available on the NHS in the UK unless it is for a front tooth.

 

I'm quite confused by this.

I've had 4 separate fillings on the NHS at £45 (I thought that was a standard price?) and I've never even been asked about amalgam, they automatically give white fillings. I thought everywhere did now?

[Rupert_Baehr]

If -as the article I quoted suggests - there is an EU Directive banning amalgam fillings, then in time they will no longer be used in the UK.

 

The problem with resin fillings is that they are not as hard as amalgam, teeth cannot be reconstructed permanently using resin, (I had one or two teeth which had effectively been rebuilt using amalgam) so the resin fillings have to be crowned.

[Twiglet]

I'm quite confused by this.

I've had 4 separate fillings on the NHS at £45 (I thought that was a standard price?) and I've never even been asked about amalgam, they automatically give white fillings. I thought everywhere did now?

 

The NHS will provide white fillings if they are on particular parts of the tooth; e.g. front teeth or sides of back teeth. If not, you have a good dentist who did you a favour, you're lucky! Most NHS dentists will charge you their private fee to do a white filling.

 

The problem with resin fillings is that they are not as hard as amalgam, teeth cannot be reconstructed permanently using resin, (I had one or two teeth which had effectively been rebuilt using amalgam) so the resin fillings have to be crowned.

 

It depends on the material I think; I've had a significant permanent white reconstruction on a fractured tooth which I had assumed would be crowned.