My dentist needs links

[allgirls]

on teeth whitening and breastfeeding.

He doesn't want to whiten my teeth because the manufacturer says not to. Of course I emailed Dr. Jack Newman and he says 'no problem, doesn't go into bloodstream, can't go into milk'

So the dentist wants more information/research...of course there isn't any..no one has done that kind of research.

What I would like to do is send the dentist as many links as I can about drugs and breastfeeding etc.

Does anyone have any I can send bookmarked. As far as I am concerned this is Canada and this choice is protected under human rights but I still think he should do the research not me. So I want to bombard him a bit.

Thanks

CAROLYN

[sapphire_chan]

Is Dr. Hale's book available at your local library? If so, you could check it out and have your dentist look up the chemicals in the tooth whitener. Of course, since they aren't intended to be digested, they might not be listed in Hale.....hmmm.....

From WebMD:
"Pregnant or breastfeeding women should wait before having their teeth whitened, advises the American Dental Association. There is little research on the effects that bleaching products may have on pregnant or breastfeeding women."

Then there's http://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/pdfs/Dental.pdf which basically says that since no studies have been done to prove that it's safe, breastfeeding women should only have it done in an emergency (what sort of emergency requires white teeth?)

Laser whitening would at least reduce the length of time the gel was on your teeth, thereby reducing the amount of it that would be incidentally swallowed. Could the dentist put in one of those massively uncomfortable rubber dams to block the chemicals from entering your body accidentally?

Sorry...

[allgirls]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

Is Dr. Hale's book available at your local library? If so, you could check it out and have your dentist look up the chemicals in the tooth whitener. Of course, since they aren't intended to be digested, they might not be listed in Hale.....hmmm.....

From WebMD:
"Pregnant or breastfeeding women should wait before having their teeth whitened, advises the American Dental Association. There is little research on the effects that bleaching products may have on pregnant or breastfeeding women."

Then there's http://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/pdfs/Dental.pdf which basically says that since no studies have been done to prove that it's safe, breastfeeding women should only have it done in an emergency (what sort of emergency requires white teeth?)

Laser whitening would at least reduce the length of time the gel was on your teeth, thereby reducing the amount of it that would be incidentally swallowed. Could the dentist put in one of those massively uncomfortable rubber dams to block the chemicals from entering your body accidentally?

Sorry...

Actually it is kind of an emergency

I have to have 2 front teeth replaced...they need to match existing teeth...the procedure is going to cost $5000...I want to get my teeth whitened first then have the bridge made. If it were not front teeth I would wait a couple years but I don't want to go toothless in the front. The plate I have now is broken and won;t last much longer.

I may just go to someone else for the whitening if he refuses to do it. He's the only one in this area that can do the other procedure I need.

[sapphire_chan]

Well there you go, they say in cases of emergency it should be done. I'd say that needing the whitening done to get teeth put in is an emergency. (Wow, front two teeth too, singing..."all you want for Motherth day is your two..." sorry)

Do you know the ingredients of the whitening stuff? It might be possible to do a more specific search.

I don't suppose he'd accept a waiver that you understand that the effects of the whitening agent on breastfeeding infants has not been studied and you will hold him harmless in the event, however unlikely, that it turns out there is some sort of ill effect related to the proper application of the whitening agent?

Offtopic:
Somebody really needs to develop an effective way to test the effects of all these chemicals on breastfeeding. The problem is that few people will volunteer to possibly put their babies at risk. They need to do a program where people volunteer to get prolactin injections to start lactating and then the researchers could measure the amounts of whatever medications the people would normally take. (Hey if they started it fast enough, I could give them a good sample set of allergy medication info.)

((evil thought...or that'd be something to do while the ff-by-their-own-choicers wait for the milk to dry up...))

[Monkeyfeet]

$5000? Well, I would have dental implants instead. They should last forever and cost about $1500-$2000 a piece. And you can get any shade!