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Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

Elite® 7 One week service Guaranteed one week turnaround A dedicated team of Master Technicians 5 year worldwide guarantee on all Elite7 work Free UPS traceable courier pickup and delivery Money back guarantee if not returned in time Top quality restorations at competitive prices Smile Design cases at no extra charge ForyourPrivateCrown& Bridgecases www.costech.co.uk l dentist@costech.co.uk Your work is in safe hands GDC registered team leaders with a passion to create 'a smile to live for' 7 E-Max Empress ZirconArch Lava by 3M Thineers Implants Ceramage Classic PFM This service is available with: on all Private Work Guarante e Guarantee Guarantee 19FeatureMarch 28-April 3, 2011United Kingdom Edition I t is estimated that one in every three people in the UK will suffer from some kind of allergy in their lifetime and this has inevitable conse- quences for health care profes- sionals who know they must take any relevant history of al- lergy into consideration before embarking on a treatment plan. From latex allergy to an allergy to the ingredients in sedatives, dental professionals must be constantly aware of how to spot, and treat, allergic reactions. One often unconsidered problem is an allergy to nickel, which can be a problem for people with fillings and restorations. Whilst the dangers of mercury in amal- gam fillings has been making news for years, nickel has been somewhat overlooked, but the potential for allergic reaction should not be underestimated by patient or dentist. Solid understanding In the dental field, a solid un- derstanding of allergies will al- low the dentist to treat patients suffering from metal allergies and to select appropriate re- storative materials for them. With approximately 10 per cent of women and six per cent of men thought to suffer from the condition, metal allergies are a growing concern, and can rep- resent a small but significant proportion of the practitioner’s patient base. So how do we know if a patient has a metal allergy? The short answer, unfortunately, is that we don’t. Medical records will sometimes provide details of previous allergic reactions and some patients may even have had a patch test to confirm this, but many people are unaware that they have an allergy to nick- el at all. Sensitivity to jewellery that contains nickel is not neces- sarily a precursor to an intra-oral reaction as research has shown that people with a positive skin reaction to nickel are not nec- essarily allergic to nickel con- taining alloys intra-orally, and vice-versa. Indeed, sensitivity to a nickel-containing alloy may well be due to its iridium and indium content instead, which all share similar chemical prop- erties. However, many patients with a nickel allergy also have A question of being safe or sorry David Hands and Neil Photay discuss nickel restorations and metal allergies page 20DTà ‘When it comes to the health of pa- tients, it is always best to err on the side of caution and so, if any intoler- ance to alloys is suspected, the best option is to choose all-ceramic materials’