Galvanic Testing Prevents Dental Disasters (Like This One)

By Mike Bundrant with Carey O’Rielly, DDS

July 2, 2009 – Our wedding day in beautiful Marin County, the San Francisco Bay Area. Tobi and I are to be married in a few hours in a stunning redwood forest, then enjoy a drive along the coast to begin our honeymoon. At the present moment, we sit in a dental office for an emergency appointment. Tobi’s tooth seems to have suddenly abscessed, causing terrible pain – the worst since childbirth, she marvels.

The dentist reviews the X-rays and taps around the tooth bit, then looks at us with a furrowed brow. “You have an infection and will need a root canal,” he reports with a degree of finality. He knows this is not what we want to hear, especially on this particular day. The doctor offers to perform the procedure on the spot or prescribe antibiotics to keep the infection at bay. The antibiotics will ease the pain until we can get home to see our dentist. We opt for the antibiotics. Who wants a root canal on their wedding day?

No one can predict when these things might happen, but in this case I can’t say we weren’t properly warned. Two months prior, we had visited Dr. Carey O’Rielly of Integrative Dental in Encinitas. Dr. O’Rielly performed galvanic testing for Tobi to analyze the risk factors in her dental health. He found that the particular crown – the very one that was concealing infection – was giving signs suggesting decay. He warned us to address the issue or it could sneak up on us. We gave the good doctor our thanks and resumed our life. If only we had heeded the warning!

Galvanic testing is an inexpensive way to detect decay where X-rays often fail. At the time of Tobi’s galvanic test, I spoke with Dr. O’Rielly further about how it works. In hindsight, I can’t help notice the irony of our conversation.

HT:  What is galvanic testing?

Carey:  Galvanism is basically the field or electrical charge coming off a particular tooth that can be measured by the device we use.  If you have a silver or gold crown or cap, or if you have a porcelain cap with a metal substructure, this unit can tell what kind of charge it is producing. 

The second thing it measures is the calcium ions coming off the tooth.  It is one way to tell if there is any leakage around an old cap or crown.  Basically if there is decay, the ions are detectable.  It’s an early warning device.

HT:  How does it work?

Carey:  The galvanic aspect comes into play when you have old metal fillings or dissimilar metals in proximity, like a silver filling next to a gold cap.  Another situation I find fairly often is when there is an old silver filling under a cap that wasn’t removed when the cap was placed.  The galvanic unit can read this and usually the readings will be quite high because of it.
HT:  If I have something that is leaking, the galvanic testing will pick up on it?

Carey:  Yes, when the readings are high we look at the particular tooth more closely.  For instance, if the edges of the cap are leaking and starting to decay, the device can usually pick that up. You can then make the determination if you need to do work on a particular tooth right away or just watch it.  This is where clinical experience comes in.

HT:  Will it pick up on issues that X-rays don’t?

Carey:  Yes, it definitely will.  Caps can hide a lot of stuff.  We can’t see under them directly and X-rays usually can’t see under them either because the metal masks the tooth.  The galvanic unit is a way to peek under a crown and see what’s there. 

You might ask, why would I want to know this?  Well, whenever I have removed a cap that had high readings with leakage around the edges, I found stain and decay that had been eating the tooth under the cap. So by using this device I was able to find and treat decay relatively early that I would not have found otherwise. 

HT:  It sounds like this is the type of thing that will prevent me from waking up in the middle of the night in screaming pain.

Carey:  Yes.  It really is an early warning detection device. We can find the problem before it gets bad.  A lot of times it’s not serious enough to do dental work right away.  However, if there is decay that is sneaking under old dental work, this is something you want to know so you can take care of it before it turns into a bigger problem, like a root canal.  You don’t want to wait two or three years for something to happen.

We include the galvanic test in our regular exam for patients that come to us from The Healthy Times. The test is quick and easy and it doesn’t hurt. All you do is take two probes and touch the tooth and the gum. We have found that the testing gives us information that we can’t get in other ways. 

Once someone understands how dentistry can affect their health they can make the right decisions.  This is our focus in the practice, and the galvanic testing is one way to prevent tooth loss, having to take antibiotics for a root canal infection or waking up in the middle of the night with a toothache.   

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The wedding was still beautiful, an unforgettable experience with loved ones and nature. The antibiotics and ibuprofen had even kicked in so that Tobi was in much less pain. And we have an interesting story to tell. Still, we could have done without the wedding-morning emergency. If we had practiced better prevention, we would have. Another life lesson in the book!