What you need to know about Mercury and silver fillings.

Mercury is a neurotoxin; a poison that is responsible for the degeneration of nerve tissue. Mercury may contribute to many disorders and symptoms such as Alzheimer’s, brain fog, dizziness, chronic fatigue, skin rashes, irritability, metallic taste, and more.

More patients are getting wise to “silver fillings”, also known as “amalgam fillings”. These fillings might be more appropriately called “mercury fillings”.

However, when mercury is heated, it is released as a highly toxic vapor. Toxic mercury vapors can leach out of this mixture, or amalgam of metals when exposed to heat or friction, such as brushing your teeth, eating or drinking hot foods and liquids, chewing, and grinding your teeth. Harmful vapors are also released when amalgam fillings are removed.

This short video clip provided by the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology shows how easily mercury vapors are released from dental amalgam fillings. http://youtu.be/Bw94F94FZqA

As mercury is released, it is filtered through the kidneys before leaving the body. As long as the rate of excretion is optimum, symptoms of mercury toxicity may not appear. With prolonged or massive exposure, and for individuals with sensitive systems, our body may not be able to eliminate mercury efficiently. Mercury that is not excreted can accumulate in our kidneys, liver, and brain. When mercury builds up in the body it often causes symptoms.

Mercury also has the ability to cross the placenta and is one of the reasons the use of dental amalgam is banned in many countries such as Canada, Denmark, and Sweden. In Germany it is banned from being used in pregnant women. Dental amalgam is still widely used in the United States as an inexpensive material.

There is a delicate dance when it comes to detoxing mercury. As your dental care team, we want to remove dental amalgam fillings and mercury from the body, yet, we do not want to over burden an already burdened system. Detoxification protocols are specifically designed with careful consideration of where you are in the spectrum of toxicity. Depending on your toxicity levels, recommendations could range from home self detoxification protocols, tracking your symptoms before, during and after the procedures to you needing to work with a knowledgable medical doctor about detoxification protocols. We will carefully work with you, considering all factors, so we are able to achieve detoxification step by step, in a way that is effective, safe, gentle, and natural.

The safety of amalgam fillings represents an increasingly controversial topic in world of dentistry. Sweden, Austria, Denmark, and Norway have banned amalgam use, and the United States’ FDA revoked its previously pro-amalgam stance in a landmark decision June 4, 2008. Although the American Dental Association continues to promote amalgam fillings as standard of care dentistry, the FDA’s website now warns “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses" (fda.gov). California has made it mandatory for all dentists to declare to their patients about mercury use in their practice. Regardless of which side of the amalgam-safety controversy seems most reasonable to you, our goal as dental providers is to offer the safest possible removal as old amalgam fillings break down and we encourage you to research safety issues surrounding amalgam restorations for yourself. When existing amalgam fillings are mechanically intact, it must be your personal choice to have them replaced with other materials, whether for health or esthetic reasons.
 

For YOUR Safety

• Upon request and highly recommended: USP FOOD-GRADE, COCONUT-SHELL, ACTIVATED CHARCOAL SLURRY for rinse and swallow. Charcoal slurry, processed to meet purification standards required for medical use, absorbs toxins, drugs and poisons. Charcoal rinse/swallow prior to amalgam removal coats the oral mucosa and tongue with tasteless black powder to prevent absorption of mercury debris into soft oral tissues and the digestive tract.

Note: Charcoal slurry also absorbs birth control pills, antibiotics, chronic disease/prescription medication, etc. ingested two hours prior or two hours post. To avoid charcoal absorption of beneficial drugs, rinse only is recommended. Charcoal does not absorb vitamin or mineral supplements.

• Copious use of OZONATED WATER during amalgam removal suppresses mercury vapor, particulates, and dust, trapping amalgam debris in the Clean-Up suction.

•   The i2-System: Unique Patented Mouthpiece Creates a Wide Open, Well Lit Field for our dentists to work with high efficiency in your mouth.Easy-to-insert, and comfortable for the patient, the Isolite mouthpiece can be inserted in only a few seconds and removed even more quickly. Economical, disposable mouthpieces mean no risk of patient cross contamination. The soft, flexible, non-impinging Isolite mouthpiece:

– isolates maxillary and mandibular quadrants simultaneously retracts and protects tongue and cheek – delivers bright, shadowless illumination throughout the oral cavity – continuously aspirates fluids and oral debris – obturates the throat to prevent inadvertent aspiration of material

•   An ORA-SHIELD DENTAL DAM NAPKIN drapes facial skin.

•   Rubber Dam: This is use to prevent mercury vapor and particles from entering inside your body.

•   A NARROW, ROUND-TIP BUR sections old amalgam fillings into the largest chunks possible, reducing release of mercury vapor, particulates, and dust.

•  CLEAN-UP HANDLE

Normal use of a high-speed drill creates a spray of air, water, bacteria, pieces of amalgam mercury vapor, carious dentin, ect. Straw-type aspirators, with their limited field of suction, are not physically able to contain or prevent all of the potentially infectious aerosol and particulate from exiting the patient’s mouth, whereas the unique design of Clean Up, providing a continuous aspiration of the work area, can capture and remove it all.

•   We protect the environment with the SolmeteX® Hg5® Series Amalgam Separator installed on our wastewater lines. The amalgam separator traps mercury-amalgam fragments before they can be released into the public water system. Approximately 64% of the mercury load on city wastewater management comes from dentistry. In fact, studies indicate that some 20 tons of mercury would not be discharged into the environment annually if every dental office had a separator installed on its water lines. Maryland does not yet require amalgam separators for dental offices, but we’ve taken the initiative.

•   About 50% of dental offices are Mercury Free. But less than 1% are Mercury Safe dental office.

•   Safety for our Patients, our Team, and Environment is our priority. At Vedic Dental, we have set in place extra care to minimize your risk of exposure of mercury when removing dental amalgam fillings.

•   Our patients are given medical grade oxygen to minimize the inhalation of mercury vapors, our team uses filtration masks reducing our own exposure, and we use special evacuation equipment and follow strict toxic waste protocols to protect our precious environment.

If you  have symptoms of mercury toxicity, we highly recommend the mercury Tri-Test by QuickSilver Scientific. The Tri-Test ensures that we know where you are on the spectrum of mercury toxicity so we can protect you and support your body in mercury elimination.

Mercury found in the body comes mainly from two sources and is excreted through different routes. Methyl-mercury is found in seafood and is excreted from hair while inorganic mercury, what you find in dental amalgam, is excreted through urine. The mercury Tri-Test separates both forms of mercury and provides a ratio of excretion from these two sources. What determines toxicity is the rate of excretion to body burden. If our system is clearing what has entered, symptoms are less likely. In the case of an overburdened system that is not clearing mercury, we recommend QuickSilver Scientific’s system for mercury detox, a therapeutic and gentle way for detoxification.

Our doctors received training by Dr. Chris Shade, inventor of QuickSilver Scientific products and founder of QuickSilver Scientific and will assist patients to understand the Tri-Test results and guide you along the way through the detoxification process.