Mercury Filling Toxicity
Mercury fillings, by any other name, are still a mercury hazard.
Mercury Filling • Silver Filling • Amalgams • Silver Amalgams
Which fillings are mercury fillings? Any filling that is metallic in appearance is almost surely the mercury filling that we are talking about. It is called by many names but rarely is it called a “mercury filling” as it most honestly should be. So most patients are not alerted to the fact that it is about half mercury, making it perhaps a great source of mercury and, in our view, the most hazardous product used in dentistry or anywhere in health care. They are more often called "silver fillings" and, yes, they do have a silver appearance when they are new and there is a significant amount of silver in them; but, let's note: silver is a fairly toxic element too. They are quite often called "amalgams" or "silver amalgams" and this is an accurate name but, the problem is, most patients do not know that “amalgam” means a mixture of mercury with other metals, so the mercury hazard will probably go unnoticed. When mercury amalgams are somewhat older they look grey and eventually they turn mostly black; this further obscures the mercury content. As the amalgam filling gets older it will deteriorate and chunks of the amalgam can break off and be swallowed. Today we know that the amalgam mercury filling gives off mercury constantly and certain conditions like drinking a hot beverage, eating acidic foods, brushing the teeth, smoking, and clenching and grinding of the teeth at night all make the mercury amalgam fillings release mercury vapor at a much higher level, with the increase of mercury in the mouth often being ten-fold.
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The History of Scientific Studies
The American Dental Association (ADA) was formed by renegade dentists, back in the 1850s, who refused to quit using dental amalgams, even though the Dental Society had condemned their use because of patients being harmed.
In the early 1930s, Alfred Stock, a German chemist led a surge of scientific investigation into the hazards of mercury amalgam fillings and called for it to be banned.
It was in the 1980s that a dentist named Hal Huggins began his own research in the US, and found that mercury amalgams were poisoning patients who had them and that their blood chemistry improved dramatically following safe amalgam removal and detoxification. A movement to investigate the concern over amalgam’s safety was launched in America and led to a new world wide movement to ban them.
In 1994, a German study on newborn babies that had died suddenly, as from SIDS, found a strong correlation between the mercury in some of the fetal tissues and the amount of dental amalgam fillings in the mother’s mouth.
In 1994, in the US, a biochemist, Boyd Haley, and his team found that low dose mercury causes the neurofibrillary tangles that are one of the markers of Alzheimer’s disease. Their published paper explained the biochemistry of exactly how the low dose mercury causes the neurofibrillary tangles.
It was in the 1980s that a dentist named Hal Huggins began his own research in the US, and found that mercury amalgams were poisoning patients who had them and that their blood chemistry improved dramatically following safe amalgam removal and detoxification. A movement to investigate the concern over amalgam’s safety was launched in America and led to a new world wide movement to ban them.
In 1994, a German study on newborn babies that had died suddenly, as from SIDS, found a strong correlation between the mercury in some of the fetal tissues and the amount of dental amalgam fillings in the mother’s mouth.
In 1994, in the US, a biochemist, Boyd Haley, and his team found that low dose mercury causes the neurofibrillary tangles that are one of the markers of Alzheimer’s disease. Their published paper explained the biochemistry of exactly how the low dose mercury causes the neurofibrillary tangles.
Mercury toxicity is associated with over 300 symptoms and diseases.
- Neurological disorders, such as depression, panic attacks, anger and irritability, ataxia (clumsiness), vision problems, hearing problems, tremors, suicidal thoughts and actual suicide.
- Reproductive harm Infertility, miscarriages, birth defects, endometriosis
- Auto-immune disorders that are also neurological disorders and they include multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, autism and autism spectrum disorders, dementia and ALS (lou Gehrig’s disease). Other auto-immune disorders linked to mercury include lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Meniere’s, scleroderma, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Crohn’s disease and Grave’s disease.
- Endocrine system harm Effects include harm to hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid and adrenal glands, with results ranging from hypothyroidism, weight gain, slower intellect, brain fog, loss of libido and PMS.
- Heart and cardiovascular damage Mercury and other toxic metals cause red blood vessels to clump and increasing the risk of strokes and heart attacks.
- Intestinal tract By damaging the intestinal tract, mercury causes yeast overgrowth, diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, mal-absorption resulting in malnutrition, colitis, Crohn’s disease, and leaky gut resulting in food allergies and sensitivities, and contributing to brain effects including autism..
- Cancer: by damaging the energy production that occurs in the mitochondria found in every cell, mercury contributes in a fundamental way to cancer. It also tends to starve the body of oxygen because it knocks oxygen off of hemoglobin binding sites for oxygen and takes its place; the resulting low oxygen status in our bodies sets the stage for abnormal respiration and the development of cancer.
How Mercury Poisoning is Increased
Mercury by itself is very harmful but it also has a synergy with other toxic metals; synergy means that the harmfulness of mercury is greatly magnified by other toxic metals such as lead, aluminum, copper, zinc and cadmium. The amalgam filling contains the toxic metals copper, silver, tin, and trace amounts of zinc. Antibiotics, testosterone, MSG, aspartame, and glyphosate (found in Roundup) all make mercury poisoning worse. Both alcohol and nicotine can bring temporary relief, so mercury in fillings can promote a reliance on and an addiction to alcohol and smoking.
Many factors increase mercury release from amalgams. Mercury release from amalgam is increased tenfold or more by chewing solid food, drinking hot soup, hot coffee, tea of other hot beverages, chewing gum, brushing your teeth, the heat of cigarette smoking and grinding your teeth at night while sleeping. The presence of metal in the mouth as from metallic braces, or metal in crowns and bridges, creates an electrical battery effect and, when the currents flow more strongly in the mouth due to the presence of these other metals, more mercury is released from the amalgams, causing the patient to become more mercury poisoned.
Many factors increase mercury release from amalgams. Mercury release from amalgam is increased tenfold or more by chewing solid food, drinking hot soup, hot coffee, tea of other hot beverages, chewing gum, brushing your teeth, the heat of cigarette smoking and grinding your teeth at night while sleeping. The presence of metal in the mouth as from metallic braces, or metal in crowns and bridges, creates an electrical battery effect and, when the currents flow more strongly in the mouth due to the presence of these other metals, more mercury is released from the amalgams, causing the patient to become more mercury poisoned.
Testing for Mercury Poisoning
Most doctors don’t know what the best test for mercury is, so they most often perform inferior tests that result in inaccurate and perhaps mis-leading results. Some of the tests, called chelation challenge tests, use chelating drugs such as DMSA, that are too harsh for the most toxic, fragile patients.
The most useful test available today is probable the Tri-test that is offered by Quicksilver Scientific, a Colorado company. It is called Tri because it uses three patient specimens: blood, urine and hair. The blood is tested separately for inorganic mercury, which would be coming mostly from mercury amalgams, and organic mercury, which would be coming mostly from eating fish, which has methyl mercury. The Tri-test is the only test that gives you a separate result for each kind of mercury, the organic and the inorganic. This alone makes it superior to other tests. The mercury in the urine is mostly consisting of inorganic mercury and so that result give you a measure of how well you are excreting the mercury body burden that is indicated by inorganic mercury found in the blood test. The mercury in the hair is mostly organic mercury, so the mercury levels found in the hair gives you a measure of how well you are excreting organic mercury out of the brain and into the hair.
So the Tri-test gives you these four results and it is the only test that gives you any of these four results. Further, it is a safe test because there is no chelation drug used such as DMSA.
Is testing for mercury body burden necessary in order to justify dental amalgam removal? No, testing for mercury body burden is not necessary or essential. Based on all the evidence, amalgam fillings are a toxic threat to anyone’s health and it is sensible for anyone to want to safely get his/her amalgam fillings out in order to allow a good mercury detox and general detox. However, testing for mercury body burden is also a reasonable thing for some patients to do, but we urge choosing a test such as Quicksilver's Tritest that is safe, scientifically valid, and gives useful results. However, be aware that no mercury test, including the Tri-test, can tell you how sick the mercury is making you because other factors also come into play in determining that; for example, other toxins, injuries, stresses and genetic makeup all influence which symptoms those levels of mercury would be causing you to have.
The most useful test available today is probable the Tri-test that is offered by Quicksilver Scientific, a Colorado company. It is called Tri because it uses three patient specimens: blood, urine and hair. The blood is tested separately for inorganic mercury, which would be coming mostly from mercury amalgams, and organic mercury, which would be coming mostly from eating fish, which has methyl mercury. The Tri-test is the only test that gives you a separate result for each kind of mercury, the organic and the inorganic. This alone makes it superior to other tests. The mercury in the urine is mostly consisting of inorganic mercury and so that result give you a measure of how well you are excreting the mercury body burden that is indicated by inorganic mercury found in the blood test. The mercury in the hair is mostly organic mercury, so the mercury levels found in the hair gives you a measure of how well you are excreting organic mercury out of the brain and into the hair.
So the Tri-test gives you these four results and it is the only test that gives you any of these four results. Further, it is a safe test because there is no chelation drug used such as DMSA.
Is testing for mercury body burden necessary in order to justify dental amalgam removal? No, testing for mercury body burden is not necessary or essential. Based on all the evidence, amalgam fillings are a toxic threat to anyone’s health and it is sensible for anyone to want to safely get his/her amalgam fillings out in order to allow a good mercury detox and general detox. However, testing for mercury body burden is also a reasonable thing for some patients to do, but we urge choosing a test such as Quicksilver's Tritest that is safe, scientifically valid, and gives useful results. However, be aware that no mercury test, including the Tri-test, can tell you how sick the mercury is making you because other factors also come into play in determining that; for example, other toxins, injuries, stresses and genetic makeup all influence which symptoms those levels of mercury would be causing you to have.
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Disclaimer: Our focus is on educating the layperson, the layperson, and DAMS does not operate dental or medical clinics and DAMS does not provide dental or medical advice. As an example, DAMS will not tell you why a tooth is hurting or what to do about that tooth; DAMS will not give you a dental treatment plan; only your dentist can do that, upon examination. DAMS only provides general educational information and a reader will normally need to consult a knowledgeable dentist or other practitioner to discus whether and how and whether the information presented here should be applied.
Naturally, some people feel like bringing a lawsuit against a responsible party, such as a dentist, an amalgam manufacturer, the American Dental Association, or the Food and Drug Administration, for causing the mercury poisoning. The road can be difficult and most such efforts have not been successful. We are familiar with a number of legal cases that have been brought in the past and have written articles about them in our newsletter. However, please know that we do not practice law and or we do not offer legal services; If you are seeking legal advice, you must consult an attorney, preferably one who is very knowledgeable in this area of law. |
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