Hi phxcoop, thanks for joining us on this thread. I would be VERY interested to hear what you find out next week--if you get time, PLEASE do share with us what you find out. I really have come to like the firsthand/eyewitness testimony the best of all on this forum. Too many times, I have tried to research a topic on the Internet, and it just happens to be recycled information based on what 'someone else heard from another person who heard it from someone else'. I really like firsthand information the best, because it gives us an opportunity to see things from someone else's point of view, and also offers us a chance to ask that person additional questions, whereas we cannot ask a research paper questions beyond what is covered in the paper. It also gives us a chance to compare information that we get from dentists in all different areas of the world, and to get their takes on everything--as the mass media (which I believe sways their opinions too often) is controlled to different degrees in each country. I also think that people on this forum are not financially motivated toward any particular result--we only want to get well, and also want to help others get well in the process.

I believe that the more firsthand data that this forum can collect about the effects of these dental materials, the more confident we can be about making decisions to either put them into our mouths, or to leave them out. After reading several of the threads on this forum, I feel that I am leaning toward the conclusion that there are a very few decent materials out there that should work for most people, but that a biocompatibility test seems in order before placement, so that complications are held to a minimum. Even with testing, it seems as though there may be other factors at work that the tests do not always catch. How to avoid these completely, I am not sure of. I guess this is why I value the firsthand testimonies so much, because at least the numbers should play in our favor over time if we can see that certain materials are working for most people at least 1 year after they are placed.

Maybe it would be a good idea to start a separate thread asking those on the forum what materials that they have used so far, who the dentist was that placed them and how the procedure went, how long they have had them, and what complications (if any) they have noticed after getting the materials placed. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Jason