Silver fillings often last in excess of 15 years. Most plastic tooth colors fillings last far less. It is not uncommon to find silver fillings over 20 years of age, still serving.

Is there a danger from mercury in silver fillings? Mainstream medicine and science say "no." The Multiple Sclerosis organization has disavowed any link between silver fillings and M.S. and Consumer Reports stills discounts any danger from silver restorations. I have them in my mouth and place them in my family's mouths. One of my two silver fillings was done over 30 years ago at Camp Pendleton, California.

We offer tooth colored plastic restorations in posterior teeth, but unless there are special circumstances such as cracks or extremely small filling size, we normally recommend silver in back teeth.

If you are hung up on the issue, I have no problem with doing posterior composites, it's just most people are better served by silver.

Speaking of which, we use Dispersealloy, which is a premium dispersed phase modern silver restorative material.

We use the German "Gluma" desensitizer which reduces postoperative sensitivity to cold in silver restorations.

Pain Control

Pain control is very important to dentistry. Nobody likes shots, but if your care calls for one, there are special things we do that reduce discomfort. One solution is the placement of topical anesthesia. We use a small gauge needle, injecting so as to push the anesthetic ahead of the needle, slowly, and with the use of distraction techniques such as shaking the lip, pressure, and other "tricks of the professionals," it can be used to reduce discomfort for nearly everyone to acceptable levels, or better.