I have a pretty severe chemical sensitivity. the problem I’ve run into is that my husband is in the process of getting dental implants. He has the posts in and they are screwed into his teeth. Right now he only had temporary dentures placed on top and they are made of acrylic. I can smell a rubber smell coming from his implants. A have to sleep well on the other side of the bed from him and keep my face covered with a separate blanket. I want him to take out the titanium implants and get the zirconia ones, but the dentist told him that is not a good idea. So, what am I supposed to do? It’s like dentists do not even consider holistic care.

Monica

Dear Monica,

You mentioned you have a chemical sensitivity and that you can smell rubber, but you did not mention what type of reaction you are having. I would be interested to know that as it may help pinpoint the problem. I say that because I do not believe his dental implants are what is causing the smell. Titanium doesn’t really have a smell as such. It is inert. Plus, they are implanted deep in his jawbone. I’d be surprised, even if it had a smell that you’d be impacted by it. One thing you can do is ask his dentist to let you smell one that is not implanted. He’s bound to have some fixtures on hand. Give them a sniff. I’m willing to bet you won’t get a rubber smell from them.

It is possible you are getting a scent from the acrylic. Make sure when they make his permanent restoration that it is made out of porcelain and that will help with that issue. Another possibility is that food is getting trapped under his temporary fixture. You could try getting a water pic to help clean out under there. He could also rinse with some hydrogen peroxide. However, if he uses it more than once a week, he could develop an oral yeast infection.

You will not want him to switch his dental implants. It is not that they are just screwed into his jaw and can be easily unscrewed. Instead, the implant itself is integrated with the bone. To remove the implant requires surgery and you would have to take a portion of his jawbone with it. Then, in order to get those zirconia implants you want, he’d have to have another surgery as well to do a bone grafting procedure. After that, he would need yet another surgery to implant the zirconia implants.

That is a lot for your husband to go through unnecessarily.

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