Metal Allergies
This inflamed rash shows the footprint of the patient’s metal-frame removable partial denture. The rash ends where the denture ends, and the denture had been in use less than a week. The patient was found to be allergic to nickel, present in the denture’s nickel-chrome reinforcing framework as an alloying element.
Metal allergies are relatively common in dentistry, most often experienced by women who wear removable partial dentures that have reinforcing frameworks made of metals contained in costume jewelry. The most common allergenic element is nickel, but allergies to cobalt, chromium and palladium are well documented in the professional literature. The significance of metal allergies lies in the fact that metals are commonly used in the construction of denture frameworks, crowns, bridges, and orthodontic wires and brackets (orthodontics).
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