Mercury Safe Dentistry

First Lathrop Dental is committed to being both a mercury-free and a mercury-safe dental practice, and we feel it is important for our patients to know the meanings of the two terms. “Mercury-free” means we do not use tooth filling materials that contain mercury, such as amalgam fillings. “Mercury-safe” means that when we have to remove existing amalgam fillings from your teeth, we take extra precautions to protect you from exposure to mercury that is released during the procedure.

Now you know, we don’t put in new fillings that contain mercury, and we protect you from mercury exposure when old amalgam fillings are removed.

These higher standards that we practice are healthier for both our patients and for our staff. Mercury has been shown to be a very toxic material. As a mercury-safe dental practice, we have invested in the specialized equipment, training, and skills to minimize your exposure to mercury vapor in our office.

It is not enough for a dentist to be “mercury free”. We believe it is also vitally important to be “mercury safe” as well. Any time an exiting amalgam filling is being replaced, for any reason, there is potential for the patient to be exposed to a dangerous amount of mercury vapor. Unsafe removal of amalgam fillings can generate huge amounts of toxic mercury vapor, easily up to a 100 times more than the maximum levels of mercury vapor allowed by all government regulatory agencies.

The patient, the dentist, the dental assistant, and the environment are at risk if appropriate and effective protection protocols are not followed. When it’s time for your amalgam fillings to be removed, we purposefully take safety precautions to protect your health, including:

• We use a special high tech vacuum system/suction to protect you from the exposure to mercury vapors.
• Our rooms are constantly being filtered for mercury both during and after amalgam removal procedures.
• Once your fillings have been removed, it is important that they are replaced with a material that is as biofriendly as possible. While no foreign material is completely biocompatible, we offer you the best, most stable composites currently available.

We strongly recommend that you only use a dentist who is both mercury-safe and mercury-free, to protect yourself from excessive and unnecessary exposure to mercury vapor.