Many people do not realize that traditional silver fillings are more correctly called silver amalgam, and they are actually about 50% mercury. This is a concern to many people, because mercury is a toxic metal, and once it becomes deposited in body tissues, it is very difficult to get rid of.

It used to be thought that the mercury in these fillings was so tightly bound that it posed no health risk. But recent studies showed that small amounts of mercury vapor are released from these fillings during chewing. You may be interested in seeing our smoking tooth video where a special luminescent screen is used to help you visualize the mercury vapor released from an amalgam filling.

There are a number of advantages of white composite fillings over amalgam. Not only is it a mercury-free filling material, but it strengthens the tooth rather than weakening it, and it looks much nicer.

RotaSmith Dental is a mercury-free dentist office in Colorado Springs. We consider amalgam to be an outdated filling material.

Here are some old amalgam fillings. You can see that the amalgam has corroded and broken down at the margins in some places. Decay can leak around these open margins. You also may notice that one of the fillings on the molar is cracked. These are all additional problems with amalgam, besides the mercury toxicity.

Replacing the amalgam with mercury-free composite fillings not only looks nicer but strengthens the teeth.

One other concern people have with mercury exposure from their fillings is the dust that is created, inhaled, and swallowed when old amalgam fillings are removed. If you are concerned about this, we have special isolation techniques to help prevent the injestion of this debris.

In addition, we use the MercOut detoxification program for patients that are especially concerned about possible mercury toxicity from old amalgam restorations. Click here to read more about MercOut.