NHS Molar Root Canal

izzybella16

Temporary white filling material behaves somewhat like amalgam it just doesn't last very long. I'm sure with a few tweaks it could be made effective.

izzybella16

brook2jack wrote: »

Did you read earlier post about monitoring of fissure sealant placing ? Did you read about community dentists visiting schools to place fissure sealants?

The NHS is strapped for cash. The idea that when some authorities will not fund certain cancer treatments or treatments for macular degeneration that will save eyesight that they will stump up £400 plus for endodontic specialists to save one tooth is not realistic.

Yes I did but there is no provision for it for adults. I agree the NHS can't afford that and there maybe some people who do not deserve it but maybe there should be some sort contract where the patient pays 50% and the NHS 50%.

brook2jack

The annual NHS spend per person treated including patient contributions is around £36 .

Only 50% of the population visit the dentist.

The budget for NHS treatment is capped, there is no more money for it, and in our area they are actually decreasing it to spend in other health areas.

How on earth do you propose the NHS funds the massive increase in expenditure of funding 50% of the cost of fissure sealants in adults, a treatment that does not have the benefits that sealing in children and adolescents has?

Temporary filling acts nothing like amalgam. It is soft, has minimal wear resistance , minimal acid resistance , little sheer or tensile strength fits a cavity badly because it is temporary. It is meant to last weeks at most and often doesn't last a day.

The oldest amalgam I have seen was placed 80 years ago. 80 years of suffering forces equivalent to an elephants foot. 80 years of extremes of temperature from freezing to near boiling. 80 years of rapidly changing ph from acid to alkali. 80 years of submersion in saliva. 80 years of exposure to abrasion , attrition.

I'm sure the people who are engineers and are studying masters in dental materials would be fascinated to know it's really easy to produce a new dental material http://www.qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/coursefinder/courses/80051.html

Here is a little excerpt

Dental Materials is multi-disciplinary and draws on all branches of science to combine them with manufacturing technology and design to overcome dental and maxillofacial (bones of the jaw and face) problems. Dental materials scientists study the processing, structure and properties of materials and the interactions of these materials with the tissues of the face and mouth. These programmes are an exciting part of our suite of medically related degrees. Both the BEng and MEng programmes contain specialist modules on dental materials, maxillofacial anatomy, biomaterials.

izzybella16

I was talking about funding for endodontics not fissure sealants.

I have used superglue gel to fill holes in teeth and it has lasted 2-3 months at a time. If something not designed for that can last so long then I'm sure something actually designed to could last a lot longer.

brook2jack

So you are worried about dental amalgams that have a century of research to prove their safety , yet you use a household product , which is a cyanoacrylate , has warnings on the packaging for good reason , to fill holes in your teeth for months at a time ?

There are warnings on packaging for good reason, never use superglue in your mouth , never use it to repair dentures, never use any products in your mouth that are not designed for use there.

izzybella16

Mercury is toxic - fact.

Cyanoacrylate was actually developed by the US army to glue together wounds on the battlefield. It has very little toxicity. When swallowed it passes through undigested.

brook2jack

Cyanoacrylates have an exothermic set. That is they give off heat when they set. Heat that is more than enough to fry the pulp necessitating a root treatment. Pack a nice round ball in a tooth and a combination of heat and chemical reaction is massively traumatic to the delicate structures of the pulp.

Use a nice thin film to stick a bit of tooth on or a crown , it's still enough to kill the pulp.

They also expand on setting, so a temporary filling could easily crack the tooth.

There is a good reason why you don't use it inside the mouth. It is not now, nor has it ever been , licensed to be used as a temporary filling.

izzybella16

Whenever I have got super glue on my skin it has never felt the slightest bit hot at any point. I was just using it as an example that there are materials out there that set quickly and are durable. You can't say amalgam is safe when the FDA warn against fish consumption. The figures I saw was something like a portion of high mercury fish has like 3mcg but each amalgam filling leeches 17mcg into the digestive system everyday. If someone has 6 fillings thats 100mcg a day, if you imagine how often fish is eaten...twice a week so 6 mcg a week. The FDA basically says avoid fish despite it being one of the healthiest foods there is because of 1mcg of mercury per day, but 100mcg of mercury from dental fillings is fine. Ridiculous.

brook2jack

commercial superglue is very different from medical cyanoacrylate
commercial superglue is made up primarily of short-chain cyanoacrylates such as methylcyanoacrylate or ethylcyanoacrylate which are not compatibile with human tissue. This is because short-chain cyanoacrylates degrade quite quickly and have toxic degredation products which could make the wound even worse! To guard against this, specially made longer-chain cyanoacrylates need to be used for medical applications.

It is also noticeable that when cyanoacrylate so are used medically outside the mouth they are used in a thin layer . Not as a ball as in a temporary filling.

This lady lost her finger tip using superglue
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036350230300203X

izzybella16

I wasn't promoting superglue as dental filling, was just using it as an example to it is possible to create materials with the desired properties