Hi Ray,

You may have already seen this information, but here are a couple of links to the Diamond-series products. I believe this dentist is the one that Russ and Laura used (Russ please correct me if I am wrong): http://www.saveyourteeth.com/

You can then go to the link of 'My Philosophy & Our Dentistry', where Dr. Behm gives a listing of the materials that have worked best in his practice over the years. He seems to think that Diamond is one of the top ones for biocompatibility--here is the link: http://www.biodent.be/diamondcrown.html

I would agree with your question about how we can really know what replacement materials are the best out there. I have been in a frantic search for this answer for about a month, and cannot come up with anything concrete yet. In my opinion we really can't know for sure, as we just don't have the measuring tools, the scientific education, and our own independent case studies using thousands of participants to provide reliable data to answer this question. I think that the best we can probably do at this point in time is to make an educated guess based on others' experiences on this forum, and based on the results of our own materials testing, whatever method(s) one chooses to use in the end.

After researching this topic for up to 20-30 hours per week for the last few weeks, I personally tend to prefer the Diamond-series products for the following reasons:

1. I believe that Russ is a very talented researcher, and did his homework well both in choosing his dentist, and also in the restorative materials that he used

2. Russ and many others that have used this product series are getting better after having their amalgams removed.

3. Russ's dentist also likes this material, and feels that this has worked well for many of his patients during his years of experience.

There are a few on this forum that have said that they feel that they did not react well to these materials, but unfortunately since one of the side-effects of mercury poisoning can be extreme chemical sensitivity, it can be an ongoing battle to find something that works for them personally. I personally am not able to find any dentists in my area to place Diamondcrown for my crowns, and this is why I am looking into the possiblity of CEREC for my crown placement. However, a biologic dentist that I am using offers Diamondlite for fillings, so I will be using this if my materials testing shows that I am biocompatible with this. I know this is a long answer to a short question of yours about Diamondlite--hope this helps and isn't too long-winded.

Jason