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Amalgam (Silver Fillings) Safe Removal


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As kids, we used to play with murcury, melt lead for various moulded items, and get our teeth filled with amalgum. All the pipes in our deteriorating schools were covered with asbestos, as were other things that needed insulation in many other places. We bought asbestos sheets at hardware stores for that purpose. We played with BB guns until 10, when we were allowed to have our own .22 rifles to hunt squirrels, etc. Bicycles were ridden without helmets or long pants, and cars had no seat belts until we were adults with our own toddlers; all of whom survived without baby car seats or warnings on small items. It was a good life.

Now, past 78, I wonder when my remaining amalgum fillings might suddenly poison me and lead me to a long, slow and horrible death.

Some of you folks scare me! Not for myself, but for what you might do to the minds of others. :wacko:

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As kids, we used to play with murcury, melt lead for various moulded items, and get our teeth filled with amalgum. All the pipes in our deteriorating schools were covered with asbestos, as were other things that needed insulation in many other places. We bought asbestos sheets at hardware stores for that purpose. We played with BB guns until 10, when we were allowed to have our own .22 rifles to hunt squirrels, etc. Bicycles were ridden without helmets or long pants, and cars had no seat belts until we were adults with our own toddlers; all of whom survived without baby car seats or warnings on small items. It was a good life.

Now, past 78, I wonder when my remaining amalgum fillings might suddenly poison me and lead me to a long, slow and horrible death.

Some of you folks scare me! Not for myself, but for what you might do to the minds of others. :wacko:

you got that right RV
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It should be clear that each body reacts differently. There are people with amalgams that never bother them, there are others that it is detrimental. Be thankful if your body is one that has never been poisoned by mercury. For example, others who had root canals through amalgam fillings without proper protection, not as fortunate.

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I agree with RV and MyHome. Since I got scared of mercury, also for aesthetic reasons, I decided to remove amalgams in two of my molars, my problems started. And not because of the mercury. I had no reaction whatsoever with the amalgams, but I developed one with the resin in the new fillers.

Composite resins are most commonly composed of Bis-GMA and other dimethacrylate monomers (TEGMA, UDMA, HDDMA), a filler material such as silica and in most current applications, a photoinitiator. Dimethylglyoxime is also commonly added to achieve certain physical properties such as flow ability.

One or all of those ingredients are causing me many health issues. It's been two years and I'm still affected. I won't go into any details here, but be careful. You might exchange a vilain for a worse one. Fear and vanity are the worst advisors. :(

If you are certain mercury is the cause of health issues, investigate thorougly before acting.

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Reactions to mercury-laden fillings, like asthma, like cancer: Not everyone has it, and not everyone gets it.

That means that people who don't have mercury-reactions, nor asthma, nor cancer shouldn't criticize & judge those who do. Instead, they could be grateful for their own good health, and show some sympathy for those who struggle with health problems.

Regarding health issues and nostalgia from our childhoods: Cancer rates for RV's generation actually represent a 50 year peak for cancer deaths in 1991 - due to those 1950's 1960's and 1970's lifestyles. Proof? Cancer generally appears 20 - 25 years after the exposure. Peak cancer death rates for the early 1990's points directly at serious health issues during the 1950's - 1970's.

There's no way that we can rationally claim that being sprayed/fogged with DDT as kids in the 1950's and 1960's were beneficial to our health.

There's no way we can rationally claim that the horrible pollution of the 1960's was beneficial to our health, when polluted US rivers caught fire and having a "good industrial manufacturing job" often meant working in a dirty dangerous steel mill, or at a paint factory breathing high levels of industrial solvent fumes.

Filthy air in Chicago, Gary, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and a dead Lake Erie do not deserve fond nostalgic memories of excellent health.

There's no rational reason to nostalgize the heavy pesticide and herbicide sprayings of our food crops, that caused DDT in EVERY SINGLE BREAST MILK sample from Canadian and US women of the 1970's - 1980's ...

As such, I value the important vast changes and positive efforts that corrected the serious health-threatening problems that harmed many of us as children growing up in the 1950's - 1970's.

I am so very grateful for good health, and I'm confident that the people on this forum are also grateful ...
but we should not poo-poo the people of our generation who have been experiencing record levels of breast cancers, prostate cancers, immune system disorders like Lupus, and other long-term environmental illnesses like having immune system problems caused by mercury in their fillings.

The OP asked a simple question for information about a local dentist who knows how to properly remove mercury-amalgam fillings - seeking a talented professional who protects their patients from ingesting chunks of extracted filling that get dissolved by stomach acids and give the patient a huge dose of mercury.

It's a personal choice, to either keep your old mercury fillings that constantly bleed a little mercury ... mercury from fillings that is in a much more dangerous form than the facetious comments about handling mercury as a kid. Unlike "playing with mercury", 100 years of reality shows Ingested mercury is very toxic, and takes years for the body to excrete.

Read about Minamata Disease to know the risks of ingested mercury.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease



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Good for you.

That still does not mean you should criticize and judge others for health issues that are beyond their control.

We should not minimize the long-term effects of the bad industrial pollution, above ground nuclear tests that exposed many of us to significant radiation from Missouri to New England, and dangerous pesticides that contaminated decades of our foods.

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The OP was asking about removing amalgams safely. I wish someone had warned me years ago about "not touching my amalgams" if I had no health issues. I wouldn't have the problems I have today if I had left them alone. As much as I appreciate your discourse, snowyco, about mercury and heavy metals contamination, you are hitting a fly with a hammer as far as mercury in amalgams is concerned.

I don't think anyone will minimize the long-term effects of the bad industrial pollution, above ground nuclear tests that exposed many of us to significant radiation from Missouri to New England, and dangerous pesticides that contaminated decades of our foods.

That article "Minimata Disease to know the risks of ingested mercury" does not mention amalgams as far as I could read. The debate among specialists regarding the danger of small quantity of mercury in our mouth is not conclusive. It could go both ways. We all agree that it could affect certain people but not others. I belong to the others. I got scared and wanted them out, and that's what hurt me. I was just fine with my 12 amalgams in my molars. I'm old enough to know that those amalgams did not affect my health. I keep asking myself: Why the hell did I touch them? FEAR OF MERCURY COMBINED WITH A BIT OF AESTHETIC.

Everyone is free to believe and do as they please. Those who have no health issues should leave them alone. That's my opinion. You're entitled to yours. I never felt that someone was criticizing or judging anyone for health issues beyond their control. RV was mentioning his own experience and opinion. We are old enough, I think, to draw our own conclusions. Discussions don't hurt.

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I'm getting too tired to do any more googling tonight...

Remember when you had to wait for the Dentist or his Assistant to mix the amalgam? It was my understanding that the mercury problems were because the amalgam had not been mixed properly...anyone remember that? The problem was that everyone panicked and starting thinking "what if".

I did have all of mine removed 15 years ago because I already had an autoimmune disease. It made no difference whatsoever to me or my health.

But every single one of us is unique. Our bodies, our choices...all we can do is hopefully make the right decision at the right time and for the right reasons.

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Some people have tue health issues with mercury fillings but I say in my opinion if you feeling well then leave well enough alone.

Going tot he other mention pesticide use here is rampant still with things not allowed in US..so double whammy.

I was going to have my mercury fillings out for vanity and word of their detriment but then Igot Breast cancer and said hey leave well enough alone.

I did everything in my power to decrease risk of breast cancer did not help..so it is a draw of cards.

Probably burning fields and tires here is not exactly good for us either.

Everyone should do what they feel best, just be sure you are getting proper care and not be taken for money.

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Now he will tell us of all those dead sheep; which is a true event, by the way.

If you want to be afraid, think very hard about the news from Paris this week. WWIII is well under way and getting closer. Mexico is looking like a very safe place for Americans now.

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The OP was asking about removing amalgams safely. I wish someone had warned me years ago about "not touching my amalgams" if I had no health issues. I wouldn't have the problems I have today if I had left them alone. As much as I appreciate your discourse, snowyco, about mercury and heavy metals contamination, you are hitting a fly with a hammer as far as mercury in amalgams is concerned.

I don't think anyone will minimize the long-term effects of the bad industrial pollution, above ground nuclear tests that exposed many of us to significant radiation from Missouri to New England, and dangerous pesticides that contaminated decades of our foods.

That article "Minimata Disease to know the risks of ingested mercury" does not mention amalgams as far as I could read.

The debate among specialists regarding the danger of small quantity of mercury in our mouth is not conclusive. It could go both ways. We all agree that it could affect certain people but not others. I belong to the others. I got scared and wanted them out, and that's what hurt me. I was just fine with my 12 amalgams in my molars. I'm old enough to know that those amalgams did not affect my health. I keep asking myself: Why the hell did I touch them? FEAR OF MERCURY COMBINED WITH A BIT OF AESTHETIC.

Everyone is free to believe and do as they please. Those who have no health issues should leave them alone. That's my opinion. You're entitled to yours. I never felt that someone was criticizing or judging anyone for health issues beyond their control. RV was mentioning his own experience and opinion. We are old enough, I think, to draw our own conclusions. Discussions don't hurt.

.

"I wish someone had warned me years ago about "not touching my amalgams" if I had no health issues."

I agree completely.

The OP and others who choose to ask about safe local options for removing fillings, don't deserve personal critiques by others who do not understand the potential problems.

" That article "Minimata Disease to know the risks of ingested mercury" does not mention amalgams as far as I could read. "

The article on Minamata Disease is completely rooted in ingested mercury ... as it was only ingested mercury that made the Japanese people so sick. Reading just the first part of the article describes how commercial industrial mercury environmental pollution quickly moved through the bay's food chain, up into humans diets, with catastrophic results from ingesting mercury.

Other posters joked above about their childhood handling of liquid mercury and how they weren't hurt. These childhood nostalgic memories bear no resemblance to the very significant risks of ingesting pieces broken mercury amalgam from filling extractions, little chunks of mercury amalgam that our GI tracts then dissolve in stomach and small intestinal acids ... releasing that mercury from the dental-amalgam in a very nasty form ...

Ingesting small pieces of amalgam, created when removing old dental fillings creates exactly the same long-term health risks as experienced by the Japanese people who ate mercury-contaminated seafood, because once ingested, our bodies take decades to eliminate the mercury.

" I wish someone had warned me years ago about "not touching my amalgams" if I had no health issues. "

This is exactly my point.

Removing our old mercury fillings and replacing them with other materials, when done poorly, exposes us to some nasty very real un-imagined risks.

Should these risks and the related personal health choices be targets for the personal critiques of spectators ?

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I agree with those who believe that we should not remove our amalgams if they don't cause health issues. Firstly, how can you be so sure that your health is affected by amalgams: fatigue, headaches, insomnia, etc. could come from many other sources.

In 2003, my sister had 6 amalgams removed within one year without any of the precautions that are suggested. At the dentist, she was spitting that black powder with pieces of amalgams, and she might even have swallowed some powder. She had new amalgams put in again and is feeling perfectly healthy 12 years later.

The reason she chose amalgams instead of the composite filling is because of my own experience years ago with that material. I believe that (for me) the polymers, silica and other chemicals (they even add floride in some of them) are worst than the 40% mercury in amalgams. I developed an allergy to the composite. I have a bad medication taste and constantt burning on the side where it was done.Three months later, I started to have skin problems and flu like symptoms many times a week and insomnia and because of the stress it causes me, I have occasional headaches which I never, never had before.

My sister has no problems with her amalagams. She has no heath issue and she's 68 now. So, can we say that my family is not affected by mercury? Or may be the mercury in those amalgams are not enough to make us sick. I believe that many other things around us, and certain fish are more mercury contaminated than amalgams, and we don't seem to make such a fuss about eating them regularly. At least anyone I know don't worry about it.

It's just like peanuts (or sea food or bee stings). If you're allergic to them, avoid them for sure--even peanut oil. But don't scare others in saying that peanuts are bad for us and that we should avoid them. We read so much on the internet about some people becoming suddenly experts on the subject. I admit, it had an effect on me but no more since I'm reading scientific studies and went through the experience myself and realized that all the scare is without proof. I have tons of documention on the subject of composite and glue they use. It's scary that they put that in our mouth. To make you accept it, they say that if it's dried properly, it should be okay, but it's not. It continues to cure for years and years. I guess I'll see how long it takes in my case--if I'm not gone before.

I agree with Colibre that if it ain't broken, leave it alone. That little bit a mercury that MIGHT (or might not) leak won't kill you but something else will. Fumes escaping from the mercury in our amalgams affecting our lungs . . . give me a break. What about cigarettes, chemicals in our soaps and cleaning products, air pollution, etc. Our body can take a lot more than we believe. We should pay more attention to our food instead of worrying about a tiny bit of mercury mixed in our amalgams. Sugars, salt, BAD fat, food coloring, artificial flavor, all the names we cannot read on the box, teflon, plastics, and the cans covered with a very dangerous plastic, microwave etc. are more dangerous.

Save yourself some money and time, avoid potential new problems, keep your amalgams and be happy.

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Snowyco Where were those above ground test done that exposed everyone from Missouri to New England? What about the rest of the United States??

BigD,

Those above-ground nuclear tests have been well documented since the first Trinity "shot" in 1944 outside Alamagordo, NM, continuing with many many US above-ground nuclear explosion "tests" until mid-1963.

As publicly widely-known since the 1970's:

That first 1945 Alamagordo "Trinity" test definitely fogged Kodak's X-ray films in clinics and hospitals across America, from eastern NM, up through Missouri and Iowa, across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, NY, and New England.

55 years of publicity have documented how US nuclear tests have exposed pretty much all Americans who were down-wind west of Nevada and down-wind west of New Mexico's test shots between 1945 - 1963.

I clearly remember the TV news reports in 1962-1963 telling Midwest kids to NOT EAT RADIOACTIVE SNOW because the US Military was firing-off as many explosions as they could before the 1963 Test Ban treaty went into effect. Some reports say there were as many as 62(?) above-ground US shots that dosed roughly 100 million Americans down-wind with toxic radioactivity. Did other locales get public warnings? I don't know.

Due to prevailing weather-patterns, Texas was not as frequently in the path of the radioactive fallout, so younger folks and Texans who followed only Texas news may not be aware of what happened to USA's biggest midwest and NE cities as America's most densely populated areas in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's.

According to both US govt. records, decades of public reports, and Kodak's X-Ray film division: People from NV and east through parts of Kansas and across the American heartland (Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio) - across to Pennsylvania, New York and New England got regularly dosed with US nuclear test shots from 1945 - 1963, which some of us are old enough to remember.

Ironically, right after the 1945 Trinity shot, Kodak secretly reported to the US govt how their clients west of New Mexico with previously un-exposed X-ray films (in the cans, in drawers in US clinics ) were "exposed" - ruined - by the 1945 Trinity shot.

Kodak scientists explained to the Feds in Washington that they were convinced that the US military had developed an A-bomb, and fired-it-off, as the only explanation for their map of exposed X-ray films across the USA (down-wind east of NM).

The Feds were alarmed, because they had not-yet bombed Nagasaki nor Hiroshima, and the Feds imagined that their Manhattan Project was a huge secret.

So, from the infancy of the USA's nuclear program, Federal government officials knew that their nuclear activities were contaminating 100 million or so Americans across USA's densest population areas.

The Feds decided to trust Kodak (partly due to Kodak's incredible historical culture of secrecy), and they told the Kodak boys everything ... and the Feds cut a deal with Kodak that: If Kodak agreed to keep the secrets of 100 million Americans secretly being exposed to radioactivity, then the Feds would secretly notify Kodak before every single above-ground shot, so Kodak could protect their X-ray film in-production, by shutting down their X-ray film production lines in Rochester, NY for every above-ground nuclear shot in far-off New Mexico and NV.

That Kodak-US Govt. agreement was necessary until after 1963, when it finally again became safe for Kodak in Rochester NY to go back to normal X-ray film production operations. In the meantime, Kodak changed its X-ray film packaging over to stout metal cans that protected their X-ray film at clinics and hospitals from the radioactivity in US air, downwind from NM and NV above-ground nuclear shots.

By growing up in Illinois, we got the quadruple-whammy of regular frequent US govt mandated public DDT spraying (to try to eliminate mosquitoes) + plus regular doses of mildly-toxic radioactivity from US nuclear tests + plus Chicago pollution + plus carcinogenic crop-pesticides in and on our food.

The consequences?

As a result, at least 6 of the women from my high school's little graduating class (74 kids) have had to have their breasts removed,

which makes it no laughing matter.

Which takes us back to the main point that we should respect the health choices of other people,

because we just don't know their medical histories, and it's up to them to make their own personal choices,

without expecting public criticism by people who don't know US public health nor personal health issues.

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Please read the following article regarding dental amalgam.

http://www.ada.org/en/about-the-ada/ada-positions-policies-and-statements/statement-on-dental-amalgam

.

Before denigrating it, please realize that there is profit to be had by replacing all of those old amalgams so no dentist or dental organization would try to cover up problems with dental amalgam. The ADA is the most patient-centric organization that I know.

A few other points:

Amalgam is cariostatic - The oxidation (the black look) kills bacteria. That it why it looks so bad and there is still no decay.They can last a LONG time.

There is really no good replacement that has fewer problems. The resins (plastic) restorations have a high rate of failure. Average life span is 3 years. Being plastic, they are very allergenic.

For all of you hyper health folks out there, did you know that porcelain is very slightly radioactive? Not enough to be a concern, but some of you may object.

Any glass or porcelain restorations are relatively poor fitting. They tend to have poor margins. Consequences? Potential gum disease and/or decay issues.

Free mercury is only expressed at high temperature. Yes, water spray with high speed suction should be used. This is standard procedure for most anyway. Mercury is fat soluble. Meaning, if mercury was present, every time you touched your tongue to it, it would be absorbed. It doesn't happen. It is in a bound state with other metals.

Sorry, but I don't buy that people have gotten elevated mercury levels from amalgam removal. It is much more likely they lived in an environment (for example near an old style paper mill) that caused it, ate contaminated fish, etc.

If ANYBODY were to be affected by this procedure, it would be dental office personnel. Doesn't happen. They are no more loony than other folk.

I could go on and on (which I kinda have) but the bottom line is that I would be more afraid to cross the street than to have an amalgam replaced. Keep your head out of smelting ovens and you should be OK!

T.

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It should be clear that each body reacts differently. There are people with amalgams that never bother them, there are others that it is detrimental. Be thankful if your body is one that has never been poisoned by mercury. For example, others who had root canals through amalgam fillings without proper protection, not as fortunate.

MHS have you had the test that show you have been posioned by mercury? Such posioning is really uncommon, as in even arsenic posioning is more common.

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MHSH you shouldn't have to worry too much about swallowing the amalgum grit and tooth particles if the dentist uses a rubber dam. Many if not most use it. Though it is like latex gloves it has been somewhat slower to be fully adopted in Mexico. You can put on a disposable mask as well.

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