Hi everyone,

I've just had an initial consult with the dentist that I will be using for amalgam removal. In general I was very happy with the removal protocol that she outlined (they basically follow the Huggins protocol), however I do have some questions about some aspects of the protocol as outlined. I would very much appreciate it if someone can help me with these.

Firstly I do have to travel a few hours and as a result of this she suggested having two quadrants done in the one day (though without crossing the midline). One session would be in the morning, then one in the afternoon. I was just wondering if this is OK to do as I thought that it is generally suggested that one quadrant is done at a time.

Secondly she suggestion that I have a wisdom tooth pulled. I only have 1 wisdom tooth on the top right, the top left is there but has not emerged yet. The bottom two just plain don't exist. I wonder whether there is any real reason to remove the one wisdom tooth. She says it is useless as it has no opposing tooth to grind food with and is hard to clean. Although that does sound like common sense advise I'm also aware that cavitations may be an issue if the tooth is not removed correctly? In that sense it may be better to just leave it there as it is not hurting anything or pushing any teeth out of alignment (i didn't even know it was there).

Thirdly they use a high speed drill to minimise exposure in terms of length of time that the patient will be exposed to mercury, however i think i've read somewhere that high speed is not the greatest idea for some reason - perhaps as it increases heat and vaporisation or something along those lines?

Fourthly - how essential is eye protection? I asked her about this and she said that the respirator over the nose will get in the way of goggles so she just recommends closing the eyes during removal.

Fifthly although they recommend sequential removal, I have some fairly large cavities which require immediate attention (I have not been near a dentist in 10 years). Therefore she is going to start with one of the quadrants that have a low reading. Again, will this make much difference? I think I read a post from Andy where he says the most important thing is to get them out and that removal order is not necessarily all that important.

Finally i have two filings that showed up on the xray but which are white fillings - glass iomer and something else. Would there be much point in replacing these? She says no as they don't contain mercury but to my way of thiking that does not mean that they are not toxic! The fact that they show up on the xray probably means that they either contain metal or radioactive materials??

I would appreciate any advice!
Thanks very much for reading this.

Regards,
Cara