That’s my guess as to what percent of one of my teeth was drilled out today. The dentist told me it had some “slight decay” a few weeks ago in the second upper left molar. Turned out, once he drilled out the old, crappy amalgam filling, the cavity was very, very deep. He said as much between spurts of drilling which went on for something like half an hour or more.

As usual, touching the remaining tooth with my tongue after he’d finished drilling (when I was rinsing my mouth) was a mistake. He drilled the living hell out of it. But he is much more careful and much more thorough than my previous dentist, and I am impressed so far with his thoroughness and therefore believe that the drilling he did was the minimum necessary to save the tooth. My next appointment is on Monday afternoon, when they’ll extract the temporary filling and replace it with a proper gold one. (Which is more expensive, but it’s better than amalgam.) They’ll also be applying white resin to the front, where a little decay occurred.

By the way, can anyone tell me why dental amalgam contains mercury, by the way? Me, I’m thinking it might be best to get white resin and gold fillings to replace all the amalgam in my mouth, just to see if, maybe, my health improves. I know some people say it’s unnecessary, but it’s relatively much cheaper in Korea, so it seems almost worth it, even if it just might have a good result.

And yes, I know that more exercise will help as much as my (slowly, recently) improved diet and the reduction of stress factors in my life. I’m just saying…