Hi
Sebastian didn't say what helped him, I didn't persue it much.
This poor dental care is a huge problem, and although support is what you ask for, I do not have much to offer there.
Dentistry is not being done with our health in mind, unless poor health is what they have in mind [not a joke].
You are right to get he mercury out, carefully.
Replacment materials -you know that answer.
root canals can be dangerous things though. Once they become infected, the body has no way of dealing with that infection, no blood flow to it.
In my case, that infection grew to be an entity that took over my whole body, causing terrible pains in muscles, brain-fog and physical fatigue too, disabling me it was so bad.
Neither the dentists nor the doctors would address this.
My proof is that I got well again.
After 15 years of disabling pains, I am now 99% free of them, headaches too. But the sot of this relif was to get my teeth pulled. I have a denture now.
The only teeth I have left are the 7 in front that WERE NEVER WORKED ON, no fillings, the enamal intact. They never did hurt.
The other teeth sure hurt, even the ones with root canals.They had no explanation for that. I know it was infection; they refused to test for bacterials.
Perhaps it was the mercury, but the last three teeth I had out were not mercury filled [amalgam, ya] and I was still sick with those ones in me.
I don't think this answers any of your questions.
But if your concern is that you might spend all your money for years to come, only to have the same problems, yes that is possible under this sorely reprehensible dental care we get.
They know perioidontal disease can casue other illness, they say so. So why don't they address that illness and find the causes are not the gums but what is living deep in the craked fillings and in the root canals.
Karlin.
[sorry if this bums you out]