Removal of mercury amalgam fillings

[Athene]

Has anyone had their amalgam fillings removed? Has it made a noticeable difference?

Has anyone found any good articles about this topic? (I mean not quackery)

How many fillings have you got? (I'm curious to know if PWCs have more fillings than average. I've got 3)

I have been wondering about this for a while. Yesterday my gynecologist (yes!!!) talked all about multiple chemical sensitivity, methylation breakdown, auto-immunity being induced by environmental toxins... what an amazing guy. When I told him about my mercury problem he said I absolutely must get the fillings removed before even trying to detox mercury, because they are leaking mercury into me constantly. He said it's pointless avoiding tuna when your mouth is full of mercury.

The past theory was that the amalgam became stable over a period of days/a few weeks and then no more mercury leaked out, but that has (apparently) now been disproven.

However it seems to be an area with a lot of quackery and outrageous financial exploitation of patients, which is what makes me very cautious.

 

[Jenny]

Hi Athene

I had 18 amalgams replaced with composites just over a year ago by a dentist trained by Huggins. I still have 4 amalgams under crowns though. Probably co-incidentally I then experienced 6 very good months, until last October I came down with my worst relapse ever - I'm still mostly in bed and in have permanent pain, dizziness, nausea and complete weakness.

The literature on mercury and amalgam replacement is huge, and also hugely controversial. Before having my fillings replaced I did a lot of research and concluded that there is no way of knowing who is right about the dangers of amalgams, but since I'd tried almost everything else I'd go ahead and have them removed. There are lots of Yahoo groups - some based on Andy Cutler's work - and people on them seem to have widely different experiences.

Many say that there's no point in getting amalgams removed without doing chelation afterwards. Since I still have some amalgams under crowns I'm not sure of the wisdom of this in my case, but I might try Cutler's 'frequent dose chelation' protocol with low dose alpha lipoic acid and see what happens. My dentist takes the view that this would be OK as the amalgams are in root canal treated teeth, which are dead with no blood vessels and so the mercury can't be chelated out of the tooth. But I know others disagree.

Hope this helps - would be interested to hear others' experiences.

Jenny

 

[Dainty]

Thankfully I don't have any amalgam fillings. To answer your question, I only have one filling, and my (awesome) mom stood up to the dentist and insisted that it not be amalgam, despite his talk of how it didn't matter hand how much more expensive it would be. It was some sort of a resin, which is probably more like plastic and isn't ideal either, but what do you do...

 

[kerrilyn]

Every molar I have is covered with them, and some are very old now. I'd like them out but I'm afraid I will stir up even more problems if they are not removed properly, and even if they are removed properly. People have said removing them didn't make a difference in recovery so I'm not sure if I want to go through the pain (literally), and because they are large and the use of epinephrine is affecting me more, I've put the idea on the back burner for now.

 

[xchocoholic]

I had all of mine removed in 1990 and it didn't help but I have too many food intolerances for this to have made any difference. But, I just had some dental work and my dentist was saying that no one uses mercury anymore. I took this to mean it was a problem ... He was working on my teeth at that point and I was sooooo nervous that I didn't catch all the details.

BTW. I had all the regular drugs and was fine. Seriously fuzzy headed afterwards but nothing I couldn't handle.

 

[camas]

I had five fillings replaced in the early 1990s at the insistence of my N.D. at the time. I was terribly ill and getting through the appointments was stressful. I noticed no improvement at all. If I had it to over again, I would just replace the amalgam fillings with resin composites as it became necessary.

 

[xchocoholic]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20588228

2010 Jun 1;31(3). [Epub ahead of print]

The role of environmental factors in autoimmune thyroiditis.
Hybenova M, Hrda P, Prochzkov J, Stejskal V, Sterzl I.

Institute of Immunology and Microbiology, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. hybenova@yahoo.com.

Abstract
Environmental factors can play an important role in the development of autoimmune thyroiditis (AT) and other autoimmune diseases. This article reviews the role of heavy metals and infectious agents in AT. Currently, the genes responsible for a metal-induced pathology are known in experimental animals but similar knowledge is lacking in man.

Metals such as nickel or mercury induce delayed type T cell hypersensitivity (allergy) which is relatively common, especially in women. T-cell allergy can be studied with the lymphocyte transformation test, LTT-MELISA(R).

It has been found that patients with AT and other autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, systemic lupus erythematosus and atopic eczema, show increased lymphocyte reactivity in vitro to inorganic mercury, nickel and other metals compared to healthy controls.

The important source of mercury is dental amalgam. Replacement of amalgam in mercury-allergic subjects resulted in improvement of health in about 70% of patients. Several laboratory parameters such as mercury-specific lymphocyte responses in vitro and anti-thyroid autoantibodies were normalized as well. In contrast, no changes in health and laboratory results were observed in mercury-allergic patients who did not have their amalgams replaced. The same was true for non-allergic patients who underwent amalgam replacement.

Infectious agents such as Helicobacter pylori (Hp) may cause chronic inflammation and autoimmune reactivity in susceptible subjects. The results of in vitro experiments performed with lymphocytes from Hp infected patients indicate that Hp can cause immunosuppression which might be eliminated by successful eradication therapy. In conclusion, heavy metals and Hp infection may play an important role in AT.

Laboratory tests, such as LTT-MELISA(R), can help to determine the specific etiological agents causing inflammation in individual patients. The treatment of AT and other autoimmune diseases might be improved if such agents are eliminated and any future exposure restricted.

PMID: 20588228 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

 

[onebush]

I have never heard or anyone getting better by doing this...ever. I know quite a few that have done it, some actually were worse and lost teeth. A couple became more chemically sensitive. Well, look at Cheney and his heart transplant after doing it. Why did he even do it? He was not sick or so he said. I will keep mine. Interestingly on two tests I had for metals mercury was so low they could not detect it. One test was chelation first and 24 hour urine, the other hair. The turned out about the same. Nichol was over the mean by one star, that is all the rest under the line.

 

[dannybex]

I have never heard or anyone getting better by doing this...ever. I know quite a few that have done it, some actually were worse and lost teeth. A couple became more chemically sensitive. Well, look at Cheney and his heart transplant after doing it. Why did he even do it? He was not sick or so he said. I will keep mine. Interestingly on two tests I had for metals mercury was so low they could not detect it. One test was chelation first and 24 hour urine, the other hair. The turned out about the same. Nichol was over the mean by one star, that is all the rest under the line.

I think like XChco suggests, most of us probably have multiple factors involved, and just removing one of them -- like mercury fillings -- probably won't solve the problem. Having said that, there are some who do claim to have recovered by having their's removed, like Cutler, but he researched like crazy to make sure the chelation methods, and timing were the safest possible.

I've never heard a connection between Cheney's heart transplant and having his fillings removed -- that's interesting. I'm curious where you read that...do you have a link? This is just a lame guess on my part, but I would think there were many other factors involved (like his workoholic schedule just as one example), as if this was a common occurence, even Cutler and others would warn about it. I'd be interested to hear what Dr. Cheney has said about having his fillings removed...

Athene, if I were you, I'd go slowly, and would DEFINITELY not chelate until 3 months minimum after you've had your fillings removed/replaced (Cutler is quite adamant about that) -- and never, ever chelate or use a chelating agent (like alpha lipoic acid) if you still have fillings in your mouth.

I don't think there's any more financial exploitation of patients done by mercury free dentists compared to those who still (amazingly) use mercury fillings...they both charge astounding fees unfortunately.

And that's why (with the exception of finally getting my teeth cleaned) I haven't had any dental work in five years.

d.

 

[zoe.a.m.]

Athene,
I was told by a few people when I was in my first year of illness that they knew of people who had seen an ND and had all mercury removed and replaced. I saw this ND a few months later and he advised me not to have them all removed. He said it is individual and he had only seen a few people for whom he thought this was a core problem. He did recommend that as my fillings were replaced, to have all amalgams removed very carefully and to just replace with resin as was called for.

Every tooth in my mouth is filled and several have been filled 3 times (molars). I've also needed 5 root canals since I've been sick. My dentist is not a biodentist, but he does not use mercury, is extremely careful when removing them and uses a bisphenol-A-free composite. Maybe because of the sheer number of fillings I've had to tend with, I've been forced to go the slower route, but I don't regret it (I have only 2 amalgams left and resin and gold crowns otherwise). I think having work done when it's needed and done really well are the most important things. If you have a cracked amalgam though, I'd get that out fast!

I, personally, am wary of the chelation required and what a large stress having all amalgams removed is on the body, but at least it's easy now not to do any more harm with more mercury.

 

[garcia]

I have never heard or anyone getting better by doing this...ever.

Watch the 60 minutes documentary (or Panorama from the UK) from the 90's for many health recovery stories after people had their amalgams removed.

Interestingly on two tests I had for metals mercury was so low they could not detect it. One test was chelation first and 24 hour urine, the other hair. The turned out about the same. Nichol was over the mean by one star, that is all the rest under the line.

Urine test is pretty meaningless. Hair test is useful, but only if interpreted correctly. According to Andrew Cutler phd (author of "Hair test interpretation: finding hidden toxicities"), mercury toxicity paradoxically often shows up as low mercury on a hair test(coupled with something called deranged mineral transport).

I always had low mercury on my hair tests. Chelation nearly cured my CFS (I relapsed due to catching a serious infection).

 

[Wayne]

Amalgam and Metal Crown Removal

Mercury Release Demonstration

Hi Athene,

I had all my amalgams and metal crowns removed and it made a big difference for me. I don't have the energy at the moment to describe in more detail. I will say however, that it made a significant difference in my cognitive impairment.

Best, Wayne

 

[Rafael]

4 years ago, I found a few studies by the Swedish Association of Dental Patients - having trouble getting electronic link now - still have hard copy.
It showed a summary of a number of separate long term studies (some patient group conducted, some "real" scientists) to see "if anyone got better"
The results showed much stronger odds of recovery (and fuller recover) in a hundreds of neuro-immune-illnesss diagnosed patients. actually ME, FM, MS, and a bunch of psychologically branded diagnosis as well

When I find a link to the study entitled "Effects of Amalgam removal on health" author Mats Hanson; I'll pop it on here

Here's their website but majority is Swedish only: http://www.tf.nu/

Something in English by some of the same people: http://www.hetprojektet.info/rapporter/Summary_HET-Projekt.pdf

For what its worth I had all mine replaced and I eventually got much better (cannot say if coincidence or correlation). I am XMRV positive, for those that believe it the only factor.

Logic: Its definitely toxic, it definitely leaks to some degree, ME patients aren't efficient at removing toxins ..... Why not ? Sure I'm down one tooth but I fit in - in a hockey playing country.

 

[Lotus97]

What are we supposed to do if we can't afford to have our amalgams removed? I read on one website that was promoting Andy Cutler's protocol where the person said that we should just have any teeth with amalgams pulled out. I suppose I could do this since all my fillings are on one side of my mouth and I can just chew with the other side, but I'm not sure I'm ready to do that just on the word of one person. Even if I could afford to have my amalgams replaced I'm concerned of the risks. I know a lot of people get better after amalgam removal, but aren't there many people who are the same or get worse? For what it's worth, I took 1200 mg of Alpha Lipoic Acid for over a year with my amalgams in my mouth and I don't think it caused me any problems.

 

[Ian]

 

[Wayne]

I read on one website that was promoting Andy Cutler's protocol where the person said that we should just have any teeth with amalgams pulled out.

Hi Lotus97,

I would recommend against having your teeth pulled, which could lead to its own set of problems. Instead, given your lack of available funding, I would recommend taking some precautionary measures to reduce your mercury exposure by limiting hot drinks, and foods that require a lot of chewing, two things that can dramatically increase mercury outgassing.

If you do have the finances at some point to consider amalgam removal, it would probably be best to do them one at a time. Some dentists insist on doing them in a certain order (per Hal Huggins), but another dentist has said that the order of removal should be to replace the smaller ones first, and work up to the larger ones. It would seem counter intuitive, but the reason for this apparently has to do with the electrical currents that are generated in the mouth by varying sizes of fillings, and not with the extent of the mercury outgassing from each.

Best, Wayne

 

[jeffrez]

Had all mine removed in one shot after a chemical injury had me in bed for months. Started recovering the next day with noticeable, even miraculous, improvements on all fronts. It literally saved my life.

 

[Lotus97]

I know a lot of people say you shouldn't do chelation until amalgams are removed, but if we're constantly being exposed to mercury as some people in this thread have suggested it seems like doing nothing has risks too. Just to turn that into a question now, does anyone have any suggestions or links to resources/protocols on safely doing chelation while still having amalgams? In another thread one person mentioned Dr. Buttar, but I've read some questionable things about him although I would like to hear if anyone has tried or is familiar with his protocol. I've also read that Algin/Sodium Alginate is helpful for chelation. There's a thread on curezone discussing it:
http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1961498#i

 

[Wayne]

does anyone have any suggestions or links to resources/protocols on safely doing chelation while still having amalgams?

Hi Lotus97,

Here's a link to a post I did where I described some of my own detoxification protocols.

That post ties in with a thread I started on "oil pulling" that you might find of interest.

Oil Pulling (Ayurvedic Technique) for Oral and Sinus Issues...

Best, Wayne

 

[Ian]

Most of the IAOMT dentists will give IV Vitamin C whilst removing amalgams. The vit c acts an electron donor so will actually displace the mercury. Chelation will just rip it out of the body where ever it is located. It'll also strip you of vital minerals. Chelation is really meant for short term exposure, not chronic long term exposure. Most people can detox mercury naturally. There are some exceptions (autistic kids), but for most people chelation is the wrong thing to do and could potentially cause a lot of damage.