Dental Allergy Testing & Treatment

Do you want to know if you have any dental allergies? We can help with that. Allergic reactions can be quite common in many dental procedures. Since everyone is different, and most dentists don’t test for allergies, identifying your dental allergies (if you have any) can keep you safe and healthy during future visits to the dentist.

Common Dental Allergies

Many people have some type of allergy. Different foods, plants, animals, and materials can cause a person’s immune system to overreact.
Dental allergies are the exact same as any other type of allergy. Sometimes, people have a poor reaction to the common materials dentists use for fillings, crowns, etc. Fortunately, these allergic reactions aren’t usually as bad as food or animal allergies. But it’s still good to know if you need to be aware of anything important.
If you have an allergy, your immune system works harder than needed fighting something that isn’t a threat.

What Causes These Allergies?

When you need to fix a cavity or restore/replace a tooth, a dentist normally uses several different possible types of materials that can withstand the abuse your teeth endure while chewing. While these materials are great for restoring your teeth to working order, they can trigger minor reactions if you are allergic to any of them.
Some of the most common materials used include metals (silver), composites (plastics), and ceramics. It’s difficult to predict what materials may cause you troubles, so a test is necessary to know for sure.

Metal Allergies

Metals, in particular, are a common allergy trigger for dental procedures. Metal hypersensitivity can plague patients who have metal fillings, implants, and other hardware.

We prefer to use biocompatible materials whenever possible for the times where reconstructive procedures are needed. Ceramics like zirconia, for example, are far superior for dental implants since they are strong and don’t corrode like titanium.
Beyond using safe materials, our holistic approach also involves dealing with toxic metals that you may already have. We can pinpoint any allergies you may have and replace the hardware with biocompatible materials.

Our Allergy Tests

Don’t worry about getting poked and prodded like many allergy tests. We don’t divide a patch of skin up into little boxes and inject you with test samples. The tests for dental allergies are more straightforward.

We use basic blood tests. You’ll come into a lab, have a few vials of blood drawn, and then wait for the results. We usually have the results ready quickly. The only minor inconvenience is you won’t be able to eat eight to ten hours before the test so the results are accurate.

Diagnostics like our Melisa blood test do a great job of identifying hypersensitivities you may have, especially to metals like titanium, nickel, aluminum, etc.

Once we know what materials don’t work for you, we can tailor any future dental treatments. We’ll use biocompatible materials we know will work for you.