I would never get amalgams. Studies show that when you eat acidic foods your saliva has higher concentrations of mercury. The fillings loose their mercury and it leaches into your body. There is never, ever a reason to opt for amalgams. They are poison and although you won't drop dead from them, you should always avoid them and avoid dentists who use them (out of ignorance.) That said, my rule on dentistry is to do as little as possible. I do get routine cleanings. But I would not get my (old) mercury fillings removed unless there is a reason. One thing that bothers me is that with most dentists when they drill out the fillings the air is filled with mercury dust and mercury vapor (unless the dentist has very special hood equipment with ventilation etc.) That might be worse. And eventually the amalgams get old and they'll remove them anyway. Fillings get recurrent decay around them and need to be replaced eventually. Sometimes the teeth have been weakened from the filling and the teeth crack badly and need root canal (if you want to save the tooth) in any event which all means that the amalgam will be removed. I opt for gold or for visible portions composite. Composite is a light cured acid etched resin (plastic.) It doesn't dissolve away in the saliva to my knowledge. I believe it is relativey benign. I have had one root canal that I needed. They fill these with gutta percha, which is a rubber like product (unless they use something newer, but I think they still use this). I am not sure it's wonderful for you. They also tend to put in some type of antiseptic material into the canal. This lasts a long time and is of course designed to reduce infection (which can occur anyway.) Probably not very healthy either. If I don't need dentistry, I won't have it. I won't get my amalgams removed until I really need to. If I were having problems, I would consider having them removed but as a last resort. --Richard A Gryphon wrote: > >As for the rest, I too would like advice about fillings, cavities, etc. > > > I wouldn't say that my dentist is really paleo, but he *is* a really great > dentist. When I first started going to him, I had a lot of fillings to be > done, as I had been traumatized by a particularly bad dentist as a child and > had avoided all dentistry for too long. I was absolutely terrified of any > dental procedure, and was so jumpy I was probably *his* worst nightmare! > > But -- to show how far I've come (and this is the paleo part): several years > ago I had some minor fillings to be done. My dentist talked to me calmly > before doing them, and told me that given the fact that they were small and > not deep, and that novocaine is really not good for you, it would be best if > he did them without freezing my mouth. I was a bit skeptical, but said I'd > try it. All it took was some mental focus, and I got through it. > > A few years ago, I had a deep infection in the roots of a tooth that had > been injured in an accident some years before. By this time, my focus was so > good, I was able to have the root canal without freezing. (The endodontist > congratulated me on that one.) > > I do have a few deep cavities in my molars, which occasionally need to be > replaced. In those cases, I definitely opt for the freezing. But if you can > get past the initial fear, I highly recommend forgoing the freezing for most > fillings and other procedures. > > >At first I went for the "white" composite fillings but now I'm wondering > >what the heck is in THOSE and now I'm going to ask for future ones to be gold. > > I brought up this issue to my dentist some time ago. He told me that in his > opinion, it was 6 of one, half a dozen of the other, but that the amalgam > fillings were stronger. He showed me a list of ingredients in both. I don't > specifically remember much, but they are both pretty long. > > I recently had one of my amalgam fillings break and had it replaced with a > white composite, just because I like the look of white natural teeth better > than all that metal inlay. > > Irene