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| - Synopsis: Find a dentist who is willing to listen to you, patiently answer your questions, and practice in the modern age. I'm very disappointed that this happened with my lifelong dentist. I will find a dentist with a more modern view.
***If you want to skip the background story, start at paragraph three***
I'm a 22 year old medical professional, and I've been coming to this dentist every 6 months for as long as I can remember. I used to have incredible amounts of respect for Dr. Dykes, and was sad when I found out that he retired something over a year ago when I had the final inspection of my routine cleaning done by a Dr. Imani, with whom I was also very happy with. Now, I have not had a cavity in a few years likely because of my improved dental hygiene habits. Unfortunately, I had missed my last cleaning because something came up, and I never remembered to reschedule it, until they called me and I had it scheduled for 2/2/18. I went in and to my surprise was told that I had one cavity on the side of a bottom left molar, and three small beginnings of decay on the right upper side that he wanted to fill. The hygienist also mentioned a small 'discoloration' in the molar next to the cavity that she thought was not a cavity. He inspected it and verbally confirmed that it was not a cavity, just a discoloration. Now, I was surprised that he wanted to fill the small ones because the reason that I had so much respect for him was because he was never a dentist that attempted to fill anything unnecessarily. I suppose this changed after he returned to work from retirement.
So, I set up an appointment for the following Friday, 2/9/18. During the week I did more research on whether or not I wanted to fill in my three small beginnings of decay, where I found out more about what the 'beginning of decay' truly is, as well as holistic, diet based ways to re-mineralize small cavities. I decided that I was more comfortable going this route. What I also found out was that around 50% of some (old-fashioned and cheap) dental filler, or amalgams, is the heavy metal and neurotoxic element MERCURY. Finding this out startled me, and though there is no AMERICAN research that has concluded it's harmful effects on the body, the FDA has recently issued regulations changing dental Amalgam from Class I (low risk) to Class II (moderate risk). Other countries, that care about their population more than money, are banning the use of mercury in dental fillers. There ARE alternatives. I have been living quite a natural and healthy lifestyle, so naturally, I wanted an alternative. Here's what happened when I returned to the dentist:
Once the assistant explained to me that he was only doing the larger cavity because he could only numb one side of my mouth, I agreed and explained to her that I did not want to have the others filled anyways so I could try holistic remedies for them. She explained the risks, and I accepted. I requested the ceramic filling for my back molar. The assistant went to talk to Dr. Dykes. He came in and administered the local anesthesia, and told me that for the back molars I did not have a choice, he would only do the silver filling. He also told me that the discoloration that was previously not a cavity, was a cavity. I feel that this was solely so he could bill my insurance since I did not want the others filled. I was hesitant, and he walked away to let the anesthesia take effect. I asked the assistant (who was wonderful) to let me see the ingredients in the compound, it was a mixture of close to 50% mercury, silver, copper, and tin. I told her I did not want that, and she told the doctor. He came in and said, "Fine, whatever. We'll do the composite." I asked to see the ingredients, and he replied with quite high volume in front of several clients, "Oh! I don't have time for requests like that!" And told the assistant to "appease" me until I was happy. She couldn't find the container with the ingredients on it, and tried to explain away the problem. I stood up and began to put my coat on explaining to the assistant my feelings that I was not comfortable having Dr. Dykes giving me the fillings, and thanking her for her patience. "You know what?" He said unnecessarily loudly as I saw him returning down the aisle while I put my jacket on before he saw me. He seemed startled by my willingness to leave the office after so many years coming here and continued, "Why don't you go find yourself a dentist who believes in all that pseudo-science bullshit?" To which I replied, "I think that's the best plan," and brushed past him as he stood in the aisle between me and the exit.
The sweetheart working the front desk who has known me for years was so upset that I was going to change dentists, she just last week reminisced about when I was only just a child coming to the office. I asked her the name of the dentist who was there after Dr. Dykes retirement who I really liked, Dr. Imani.(Story cut off, find the rest in pics)
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