This office has been mercury free since 1985. That means we have not placed any mercury amalgam fillings since that time, but we still have to remove them. Whenever we work on a tooth we remove all the old filling material, to get down to a clean tooth, and know there is not any decay left unnoticed under a even a small bit of filling. We routinely work with a nitrile dental dam; use caries stain, and then build the tooth up from scratch. This is the only way to ensure the quality of our restorations, and the long service you will experience from our care. This process and the high volume suction combined with the special ventilation system we have in the office insure your minimal exposure to mercury during the process. We want our dental office environment to be as healthy as possible, for you and for the people that work here.

All mercury containing fillings must be removed with a careful protocol, to reduce a patient’s unnecessary exposure to mercury. Remember, the patient’s greatest exposure to mercury is during the placement and removal of amalgam fillings. We don’t place them, and we take the removal process very seriously.

We are also proud to be the first office in Marin to eliminate mercury from the waste stream. Dental office suction systems deliver everything to the sewage system. We pioneered the concept of removing this point source of environmental mercury pollution.

More recently BPA, or bis-phenyl A, has come to light as a possible hormone disrupter and an estrogen mimic, with potential health effects. This is probably more important in children, but we take it seriously for adults too. We have changed our sealants and all filling materials to be BPA free. These alternative materials give very good service, and cost virtually the same.