The biohack.me forums were originally run on Vanilla and ran from January 2011 to July 2024. They are preserved here as a read-only archive. If you had an account on the forums and are in the archive and wish to have either your posts anonymized or removed entirely, email us and let us know.
While we are no longer running Vanilla, Patreon badges are still being awarded, and shoutout forum posts are being created, because this is done directly in the database via an automated task.
Dental Amalgam as a Magnet Coating?
Hello, Resident newbie. ^^
A question to pose to those of you who play around with TiN coatings and/or happen to be intimately familiar with the nature of coating Magnets/other things for implanting. I have no idea if it's been considered, but would dental amalgam be anything worth looking into? I'm familiar that during it's setting, it releases mercury fumes, which are obviously toxic.
At the same time, however... Cut me a little slack, I know i have sugar problems.Candy is good. >~< But I've had fillings for over a decade that don't seem to be weak by any means. They have a pretty long track record... that may be starting to be usurped, maybe? Not horribly sure.
Not intimately knowledgeable about dental or the bodies chemical structure, especially inside of tissues. But Ideas?
Comments
Displaying all 20 comments
-
Are you sure there not crowns? Also the teeth are more bone like than you finger, that said someone here may know something I do not.
-
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3388771/http://www.colgate.com/en/us/oc/oral-health/procedures/fillings/article/dental-amalgam-a-health-riskBeen reading things. Information i just randomly stacked together to look around at. ^^And the material known as 'Silver Fillings" is what I am referring to.And no doubt that Amalgam is tough. It's been pulling it's weight in dental use for, if wikipedia is to be trusted... Well over 100 years? without anything else, that doesn't sound too unreasonable to believe. :oCrowns are usually caps that go over the tops of teeth, made of something else besides amalgam, usually porcelain or gold i believe.Please correct me if I am wrong. >~<
-
I know gold and silver were tested at one point but they didn't perform like champs, I think the coating wore off to easy.
-
Amalgam is not pure gold or pure silver. It's an alloy of Hg with some Ag, Sn, Cu, and a few other tiny amounts of other minor elements. I'm aware that neither Gold or Silver are an ideal coating, Silver not being Biocompatible, Gold being soft and easy to scratch. Amalgam is this stuff: https://www.google.com/search?q=amalgam&biw=1600&bih=708&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiY6Y7Xx9TKAhUW9mMKHd2ADwQQ_AUIBigB
-
And with the mention of mercury, I recommend steering clear. Bonded or not, that's still a neurotoxin. Dentistry is starting to move away from amalgam in favor of resins. They're much safer. @Cassox did had a look at using dental resins for magnet coating awhile back, and they were... Alright. But there were some issues, like pitted surfaces that provide sites for bacterial growth.Another problem with using amalgam would be the thickness of the coating. When it comes to thickness, amalgam, silicone, and resin can't compete with TiN and parylene. It's microns versus millimeters.
-
That was my initial reaction, Mercury's simple presence. >~< But there are also people who have had amalgam fillings for decades with no measured ill effects. I do not know for certain, but the mouth tends to be pretty effective at breaking things down both mechanically and chemically. It does pose the hazard from mercury dissolution into the body, But maybe there is a way to reduce the mercury content in the alloy to much safer levels? or perhaps a way to bond it more efficiently? And if I recall correctly, the body takes about two months to expel mercury in the body. The concentration, if any, mercury released may be minimal enough to have no impact. Our bodies are also natively exposed to mercury in the native environment of the planet. it is a naturally occurring element, having a small native amount in ourselves is not at all unheard of, from what I am aware. But yes, one of it's man components is toxic. that is one of it's severe downfalls, and part of the engineering challenge of 'is it safe'. The dental field moving away from it is kinda a split thing in my head. There is evidence on both sides that 'it's good' 'it's bad', but many studies I have read show that the people worst off In terms of mercury exposure are the dentists who apply the fillings. :s I personally have had amalgam filling for a long time in my so far short life, but five years later doing blood testing, there was never ever any mention of mercury being abnormal. And I have a lot of amalgam fillings. >~< This isn't anything I myself am going to try, but if anyone cares to do measurements or tests... well... In regards to it's mechanical properties, it may be quite durable and strong for an implant. Amalgams do tend to outlive the resins and the more organic-looking repairs.
-
The body may remove it within a few months, but the presence of a heavy metal/neurotoxin is going to slow down healing in that area if it leaches at all. Also, amalgam's strength might be great for dental applications, but the question is, do we need something that "strong" in an environment where bite-force strain isn't encountered commonly? I also believe, in terms of cost, that amalgam would be pricier after you engineer more of the mercury out, than using a resin or another coating.
-
I am not sure about the nature of how strong/weak some coatings may be, but given if there is a coating that can withstand bite-force strength at disposal, that may allow for much stronger or possibly thinner plating on implants, or perhaps use in 'higher traffic' areas maybe? I do know that the implanted magnets have no trouble breaking if they are plated with gold or thin layers of glass or resin or any other number of attempts that have been fractured open. I am not saying that it may be overkill, that your body instead will be receiving all of the trauma. but in the case of someone having an allergy or maybe the components inside are highly sensitive or toxic, this may create a situation of 'Well it destroyed/hurt x body location, but at least its intact". again, provided it's that strong. I'm just attempting to suggest an alternate type of coating, should it be found able to be applied to a surface, and that such coating could be made very little, if toxic, at all. It may be pricy to have the amalgam engineered, but there's some really smart people here who may have an ability to possibly synthesize it or other alloys of it rather 'easily' compared to myself. Again, an idea to toy with. ^^
-
They've grown enamel in a lab. That seems like it would be the perfect coating for pretty much anything if you could get it on.
-
Hum can you please post more about how they grew enamel in a lab? I know that chrionex made artificial bone.
-
The PatentI have absolutely no idea how feasible this is at home or even in a decent lab, or how much it would cost. But using enamel, especially based on one's own genetic material, would make for a much smaller chance of rejection I believe. It would also work well for transdermals as well.
-
I really don't know.... You should seek help from somone else on here.
-
That's staggering on the enamel. >~<Considering the amount of bioengineering involved with what i read, i'm not sure that it's going to be feasible any time soon to be doing that at homeDon't quote me on that, But my 95% is that that's punching through the roof of the 3 story house, in the room with the ceiling of possibilities for the 'at home' developers.
-
You will be surprised by what people are doing at home, do not look at it and say that's to hard. I feel like I have taken a crash course on chemistry from what I have been working on today.
-
I don't doubt it's possible. Complex, though.But many things here are. >~<I really see it being difficult to try to culture live enamel containing the future implant owner's material into it from a distance, successfully, and getting it to them. Maybe. If I'm understanding things. I just as easily could not be, however. It;s been a long day, I'm slipping into that tired.I can see a possible fatal flaw in the enamel option, should it be something. If the body decides that it's not just a foreign object or reacts differently to it, is it possible its going to cause a worse reaction than simply an inert object, reacting to living organic debris rather than something that isn't?I have no idea. Blood transfusions like certain types or things go catastrophic. >~< I do not know if this would be anything relevant. LOVE a bone/enamel idea, if it would be possible that would be a beauty. Just trying to find failure points to address.What has JohnDoe been working on? I'm Intrigued. :3
-
@Zerbula Mainly atm a fusser grade vacuum pump and chamber for less than $50 if not $100, That will be done when I get off my ass and actually put everything together. I have a more or less a pile of crap for this none of which I have the time to assemble atm. I love making things that are super simple profoundly complex.
-
I love it. ^^I am a Certified Stihl technician for a living, i work on chainsaws and the like. ^^I love building things and designing things. Moreso in the mechanical nature than the biological nature, but it's still a ton of fun. I have a lot of crazy things I'm always thinking up and playing around with, right now my current little mental game is designing a system that transfers rotational power from a powerhead into something that automatically drives a firing pin.Idea of concept for a lot of things i could make. including a gasoline powered nail gun. Don't ask me why this is a good idea. it's just an idea. Lol
-
Same way a few years ago I made a square piston, nobody seems to understand why I made it but me.... Atm part of what I am working on now will probably be used on that project.(Diy cryogenic cooler)
-
The square piston. C_CI cannot see its usefulness, fundamentally it isn't ideal. but i understand the whimsicalness of developing it. ^^Best of luck on that. Throw out updates when it's going, i love reading things. :D
-
This is ultimately what I am working towards: http://forum.biohack.me/discussion/1303/eeg-guitar-updates#Item_1 I would like to hear your thoughts on my design.
Displaying all 20 comments