(I am sorry that I have been lax at posting new articles here. What is my excuse? I have been finishing up a new book–book number 14– and I hope to go to print this week. Later this week, I will send you more information about this project.)
I honestly can’t believe I am still writing about this topic. Why anyone could think that mercury, one of the most toxic substances known to mankind, is safe to use as a dental filling is beyond ridiculous.
A study from the University of Georgia reported that surface restoration comprising mercury fillings significantly contributes to prolonged mercury levels in the body. This study included nearly 15,000 individuals. (1) The researchers reported that people with more than 8 mercury fillings had 150% more mercury in their blood than those with none. Nearly 25% of Americans have 11 or more fillings.
You might think that after this study was released, the American Dental Association (ADA) would issue a statement that mercury should not be used in dentistry since there are other safer dental materials that readily available.
However, when it comes to the ADA, Mr. Forrest Gump sums it up the best: “Stupid is as stupid does.”
The ADA claimed that they examined the study and it “…reaffirms its position that dental amalgam is a durable, safe, and effective cavity-filling option.”
Let me get this straight, the ADA is stating that the second most-toxic agent known to mankind is safe to put in a living being’s mouth?
That is pure nonsense.
I have tested thousands of patients for their heavy metal levels and I can assure you that mercury toxicity is, unfortunately, all-too-common. I would estimate that about 80% of the patients I have tested have high mercury levels. Most of these patients were mercury toxic due, in large part, to their mercury fillings.
The most common sources of mercury come from eating fish and dental fillings.
The ADA should be sued for defending the use of mercury fillings and for continuing to claim that mercury fillings are a safe dental materiel.
My advice: Do not allow your dentist to put a mercury filling in your mouth—EVER! If your dentist is still using mercury fillings, I suggest that is a clear signal that you need to find a new one. There is no logical reason for any dentist to use a mercury filling—EVER!
Finally, if you have mercury fillings, I suggest that the best option is to work with a holistic dentist to have them safely removed.
(1) http://www.dentistrytoday.com/news/industrynews/item/1266-amalgam-fillings-may-raise-mercury-levels-in-the-body?highlight=WyJhbWFsZ2FtIl0=
I am just a layperson in regards to dental health but in my opinion a mercury amalgam is the most cost effective method of filling a tooth that has to do real chewing. UV cured plastic will work in most other cases. An implant or crown is much more expensive. My dentist at one time told me that he is in an ongoing evaluation group which monitors his mercury level. It seems to track fish intake more than fillings.
I am a periodontist, and I have been in practice for 42 years. I could tell you stories about how we handled pure mercury in dental school (shortly after the wheel was invented). I totally agree with Dr. Brownstein. Mercury should be banned. Dentists need to become educated. Dental schools need to revamp their education platforms. The American Dental Association needs to read and understand the science. And, the election needs to be over on November 8th.
Dr. D,
I agree with EVERYTHING you said, including the election!
DrB
I go to a clinic because I have state dental ins too. They respect my no flouride–and no xrays unless INDICATED for the kids. For me, i just dont get many xrays. My teeth are falling apart or gone. Filled up with mercury. The roots in lower front are exposed. I ate horrible diet as a kid, into my early 20s when i figured it out. My sugar addiction continued tho. I still battle it at 51, even with yrs of good eating, getting bld sugar under control, ketosis, etc. i think its mercury-related. My hormones, all of them are just whacked.
I will never get this fixed as its a non issue acc to allopathic medicine. Its sad.
My kids have been taught better and fed well. I ate as well as I could when pregnant but I had hyperemesis gravidarum. They all nursed into toddlerhood. Hopefully their dental health will be bright.
I am a retired Registered Dental Hygienist from Minnesota and after working in Dentistry for almost 20 years, clinically as a Hygienist for 14, I had 2 miscarriages and left the field 2 months pregnant with my only child I carried to term who is now 27. Many women in the profession have fertility problems and miscarriages. I diagnosed myself with mercury toxicity 11 years after retirement, confirming it with blood tests. I had already had all my mercury fillings improperly removed, exposing myself and the dental team to methylated mercury vapor when they drilled out the old fillings to put in white composite ones. I thought I was OK with no more mercury but when I learned of the toxicity and saw a holistic physician he gave me oral chelating supplements and after only 1 dose the nerves in my legs went numb and the muscles were so weak I could barely walk up my stairs into my house. We bought a far-infrared sauna to try to detox the mercury out slowly but the same thing happened to me and I thought I was suffering from MS. After more research I suspected I may still have mercury under the 5 crowns I had in my mouth so I and sought a holistic/biological DDS that had the knowledge and equipment to remove the mercury SAFELY and every crown still had mercury fillings left in the tooth under them (the DDS had left the mercury in the teeth with fractures and covered them up with crowns, which in Dental Materials class in Dental School is a NO NO!). After having the dental revision and over 10 years of holistic health practices, nutrition and detoxification I have had blood, urine and hair analysis which show no signs of mercury toxicity. I have probably only eaten 5 servings of “clean” fish in 10 years as well. Not only does one need to remove the mercury safely, they need to help the detoxification pathways in the body to function optimally and that is a lifetime exercise. A previous comment was made about Dentists committing suicide…I worked for a DDS who was a brilliant man, wrote an Operetta, loved his wife, 2 beautiful daughters and his White Highland Terrier who came to the office to visit regularly. One would never think this man would do anything to harm anyone but one day he tried to kill his whole family by running a hose from the exhaust pipe of his car into the house to use carbon monoxide and apparently that did not work so he bludgeoned his wife and 2 daughters to death with a hammer while in their beds, shot his dog and went to his garage, sat in his car and was overcome with the carbon monoxide fumes. I was not working for him at the time and was as shocked as everyone else that knew him. When I learned about mercury toxicity I immediately thought of this man and realized he was suffering from Mercury Madness…like the Mad Hatter in Alice In Wonderland! Many dentists I worked for had personality issues, drank too much alcohol or were just “different”…my husband would probably tell you I was “different” too, until I had the mercury removed and regained my health. I call the ADA the American Death Association because Dentistry is literally killing people slowly with mercury, root canals and toxic materials they put into the body without realizing every person is different and bio-comparability to dental materials is an issue that needs to be addressed for every patient. Clifford Testing is a method of blood testing for thousands of dental materials used and no one should have anything put into their body without knowing if it will be compatible. I am so happy Dr. Brownstein is advocating for the ban on mercury and more physicians need to realizing that Dentistry is killing their patients! We have divorced the mouth from the body and made it a separate science, which is CRAZY! I am an advocate for an organization called DAMS – Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions and they have dental referral lists for people looking for a dentist who is knowledgeable but I implore people to get books from their “Recommended Reading List” and become educated so you can interview a DDS to see how much they really know before you let them touch you. Find DAMS here: http://www.dams.cc BE WELL!
Dr. Brownstein, please consider releasing your books as e-books. I have bought the two of your books that are available as e-books and would like to buy more. Good luck with your new book and project!
Greetings from Scandinavia 🙂
Christian,
We will pursue making E books out of all of them.
DrB
The U of M Dental School is still teaching their students to use silver fillings! I refused to allow them, and the supervisor backed off. I also refused the flouride treatments. The student had to explain my feelings to the supervising dentist. Should he be surprised??
Sandie,
Of course they would still teach their students that mercury fillings are safe– the ADA still makes this ridiculous claim. Mercury is not safe for the dental patient and it is not safe for the dentist.
DrB
I wish I had brushed/flossed at my job and not just at my house and do this right after a meal. I felt funny brushing/flossing at my work in their bathrooms. Few kids brushed their teeth at school unless they had braces. I got two root canals due to eating red licorice…not good. I later found out the licorice has wheat in it which may have made it addicting. I got a root canal when I refused X rays for a year at the same time as the colloidal silver poisoning. I could not handle the X rays to bite on and knew radiation was not good. I panicked in the dentist chair for molds taken and more due to the colloidal silver. I think now I may not get another cavity again….too bad I didn’t brush/floss more when younger. Green tea helped heal my teeth when cranberries/lemons hurt them. I now brush with water mostly to avoid harsh tooth paste…even the natural kind is strong. AL complex and tea tree oil tooth paste helps keep my teeth clean. Xylitol or Hydrogen peroxide hurts my gums and mouth. F in tooth paste is not good. Little kids could at least brush with water and eat carrots/apples etc instead of candy. Candy may have GMO corn syrup in it and more. Gluten may cause more cavities in people. I have Celiac/gluten issues. I think the colloidal silver lowered my immune system/oxygen causing my last root canal and causing the root canal not to heal well. I would like to get my 3 root canals out. I will wait until stem cells can grow more teeth or better dental implants happen with less toxic metals. I wish I would have prevented my cavities/root canals. I feel like I am like an “old car”…parts wearing out and wish I could restore myself back to full health.
Thanks for your awesome articles/books/efforts to educate.
Keep writing books…they are awesome. They are simple/easy to read/full of awesome information. I almost died from heavy metals. I took colloidal silver and it built up in me due to other heavy metals bogging down my liver/Celiac. Nothing oral helped detox the silver. I got precancers/sagging eyelid/lost my sugar digestion/a banana was like gasoline in me/it blocked my thyroid and other chemical reactions…Zn did not work right…made my eyes flash on and off like a light bulb going off and on/I had 24 hour a day panic attacks and was like an Autistic kid…could not talk…thought I said something out loud but didn’t. I shook and much more hell. I have never experience this much suffering before. I thought this maybe how Chemo feels. The silver was sinking deeper into my body and no Conventional doctor helped me and they denied I had silver in me at all or mercury/arsenic. They did a urine test without a chelation and said I was fine…no problems. They throw away my hair test that said I had heavy metals in me and good minerals were low. I finally found an Alternative doctor…only one in my state that did EDTA and DMPS IV chelation. 2 IV chelations a week…then once a week…then once every 2 weeks…then once every 3 weeks and eventually once a month and still continue today doing the IV chelations since they keep my heavy metals down and blood vessels unclogged. I have 68% arsenic in me even with IV chelations. I found Far Infrared Sauna removes heavy metals fast, but I feel like I am being cooked and I don’t sweat well. I had tried to use rumex/brown seaweed/chorella/Vit C to detox the silver, but it didn’t help. Now brand- Detox support/baking soda/Nature’s Rich/organic sulfur/liposomal glutathione and liposomal Vit C/green vegetables/garlic and more may help detox, but I was very sick and took Xanax to deal with the 24 hour panic attacks until until after the 3rd IV chelation when my panic attacks stopped. I was suicidal due to low oxygen in my brain. Low oxygen in my brain causes depression/anxiety/no sleep/obsessing/panic/suicidal thoughts. I understand why someone may do suicidal. A person may feel like they are drowning and panic too much. My night vision was very poor until the IV chelations helped. I had a hard time driving at night. It was like driving in a bathroom that was dark. Zinc is very important. IV chelations may remover more Zn than Cu and make Cu go up. Mo may remove excess Cu. Keeping a Cu/Zn balance is needed. You can take Zinc without Cu, but never Cu without Zinc. My eyes got dim taking Cu only and never reversed back to normal. Now I need a brighter light to see things. Prevention is easier than cure. There are many Health food stores selling ionic/colloidal silver, but some people may get hurt by silver..even a small amount due to having other heavy metals in them and being Celiac. How do they know they will not build up the silver like I did? Mercury fillings also have silver and other minerals…all may hurt. I now have resin fillings, but I think my health went downhill each mercury filling I got.
Thanks for your awesome help in telling people about heavy metals.
Toothpaste and rinses containing peroxide (beware tooth-whitening products) cause an increase in the amount of mercury released by silver fillings.
There is also danger during the removal of old silver fillings. White fillings are often the replacement and they are plastic and contain BPA – which is not a good choice (especially for women at risk for breast cancer). Often during the process of removal a tooth can be harmed and the nerve may die a few years later.
The best dentistry is NO dentistry. Dental disease can be controlled when teeth are protected from damage and destruction by a sensible diet and good home care.
Dr. Ellie,
Simply eating/drinking warm liquids causes an increase in the amount of mercury released!
I agree with all your wrote, thank you.
DrB
Many people have 10 fillings…then the mercury greatly hurts them. I have MS and it was getting worse due to heavy metals. One heavy metal bogs down the liver and my liver was not doing well due to Celiac. Gluten may affect the thyroid and other glands and intestines so less minerals absorb and much more. Celiac people may build up heavy metals faster than others. Gluten may hurt most people now. New dentists are still taught to use mercury. Dentists may commit suicidal due to heavy metal poisoning/Celiac. My dentist died from cancer due to Celiac/heavy metals. He needed detoxing not Chemo that added more poison. He was young. His hand writing was shaky. If he had done EDTA/DMPS IV chelations or Far Infrared Sauna may have detoxed the heavy metals fast along with Celiac help. His workers got afraid after he died for their health. Hair tests show good minerals/heavy metals. All workers/dentist should get hair tests and detox regularly. Two dentist in my area have pure white hair…sign of detoxing which may also remove some B vitamins. They may not be replacing the good minerals and take vitamins/good oils etc. The dentist who died took out my mercury fillings. He may have breathed them in while removing them. He had no problems removing them….knew it was good to do it. My other dentist said he would lose his license if he removed good mercury fillings. I left that dentist for then great one who helped me remove the heavy metals.
Dentists working on kids too young and giving them root canals that were not needed and fillings etc. is very sad. Dentists need to be ethical and only do what is needed/healthy.
The FDA may want to avoid law suits so they say it is ok and limits for radiation/lead etc are not good also.
Unfortunately I have had mercury fillings for years and I do believe that they have impacted my health, but I have no dental insurance and no money to have them replaced. I go to the local dental school in Nashville and have repeatedly been told my student dentists and professors alike that “MERCURY FILLINGS ARE SAFE”. I told them when I need one replaced it would NOT BE with mercury. But they continue to try to force me to use this toxic substance. YES the ADA is still promoting it.
My belief is that the FDA might mostly ignore mercury in such as fish to cover for the ADA.
MY FEELING IS, if the FDA was our friend, it would have happened decades ago.