What's in your makeup?
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 7:57PM Now this may seem like a strange post topic for a dentist to make but you'll see why I'm writing about this soon.
It's well known that women have more sensitivities / allergies to metals than men. This is an issue for dentists because traditionally many of the restorations ( fillings, crowns, dentures, implants) we dentists place in the mouth have a metal component. There is often no choice ( but that is changing more and more these days). We are very careful about what the metal dental restorations are made of. Some lesser quality metal alloys that some cheap overseas dental labs use ( so you can get "cheaper" dentistry) can cause some reactions in patients. You might be surprised to learn there are lots of dentists in the USA that have their dental lab work done in China. These reactions are not full blown allergic reactions many of you may be familiar with but can be seen as puffy inflamed and sometimes bleeding gums around dental restorations like crowns or bridges. Aside from looking ugly, it's just not healthy.
So why do women have more reactions to various metals than men? Well, we have always know that women wear more jewelry than men ( but this too is changing a bit too- men and earings...) and lots of it is costume jewlery. The metals in costume jewlery can often be questionable and surely has lots of nickle as a component. Nickle is one of the most common metals to have reactions too. Even real jewlery can have inexpensive alloys as part of it to keep costs down. The stem of an earing for example in quality jewlery should be gold but often to save money it isn't. Have you ever had irritations say on your earlobe or under your ring? Could be a metal allergy. Ugly puffy dark gums around a crown may be a metal allergy too.
Where am I going with all this? Well wearing more jewelry, starting when you are young can sensitize you to the metals in them. And we dentists are seeing this in the mouth around some metals used in dentistry. It may even occur around quality dental alloys we use. And yesterday there was a story about all the metals found in makeup! and so ....another source to sensitize women to metals?
See the story linked here for more details...
Reader Comments (3)
I think it's really necessary to preserve our natural teeth. So one should take care of our teeth and also visit a dentist after 2-3months. I am also doing that.
So dental labs from China are not safe at all?....
How would anyone know? They are beyond the reach of our regulators and inspectors. Look at the history of products contaminated in china to date. Melamine, lead in painted products sent here where it is forbidden.
sjr