My Mouth as a Toxic Materials Site

I know there are many obvious jokes about the above post title, but I mean the title to be taken literally and without irony.

I was at the dentist on Tuesday to have an aging amalgam filling replaced. These are the fillings with mercury. When I have had this procedure done in the past it was a pretty normal time at the dentist. They drilled away for a while, then filled, leveled, and smoothed. Like highway work really, only on a small scale.

This time was bit different, though. I could tell when they rolled up a big machine with a flexible fabric tube that was positioned near my head. It looks like a miniature version of the tubes they use to service airliners. This one turned out to be a big vacuum. The put one of those rubber dams around my tooth (to "isolate" it.) In a few more seconds I was breathing from an oxygen mask that had been lain on my nose, and my dentist and her assistant donning gas masks, goggles, and gloves. The gas masks were yellow plastic versions of the World War I masks, with the pair of cylindrical vents, one on each side of the mouth. They cranked up the vacuum and away we went. "Turn towards me", "open wider", and "almost done" all sound pretty much like "mmmmph-mmm-ph-mmm" when people are talking through gas masks inside a man-made windstorm. It was a pretty weird experience. If I am ever abducted by aliens, I will be prepared.

Apparently, this new protocol is completely justified by the risks. Apparently dental office workers have historically had a number of serious health problems that are now attributed to mercury.

It has been less than a hundred years since mercury was thought be beneficial to one's health. A few years ago we visited the New Almaden Park in San Jose. This was the site of the biggest mercury mines in the world (hence the name of the San Jose paper, the Mercury News.) I remember seeing in the museum that people would visit the mine area as a health benefit. The mineral water from the creak that flowed through the mine area was sold as a tonic. This was because it contained mercury, not in spite of the fact.

- J