Saturday, April 21, 2012

Mercury: (Part 2)

Today, I would like to discuss about dental amalgam fillings (silver filling), ADA as well as abit about dentists. I just recently met a dentist who told me that mercury in amalgam is safe and doesn't cause any harm to the body. I just looked at her and smile, hinting to her, "Please do your job dentist".

Now, dentists began using mercury amalgams to fill cavities over 150 years ago. Amalgams are, in fact, mixtures of various substances used to fill cavities, and include approximately 50% mercury, 30% silver and small amounts of zinc, tin and copper. Bear in mind, that profits from using amalgams were just too great to resist. Today, ADA is one of the best funded dental organizations in the world, with over $27 millions in annual dues and $10 million more from grants and support from dental product manufacturers and advertisers.

As Dr.David Kennedy, a dentist opposed to the use of dental amalgams, states in his book, How To Save Your Teeth, the ADA makes the official claim that "Amalgam restorations continue to be shown safe for the vast majority of patients". As you continue to read this post and the next following post, you shall see, there is considerable evidence that mercury from dental amalgams is extremently hazardous to human health.

Mercury has already been known to be a danger to human health when amalgams were first introduced in the United States over 150 years ago. So, how can the ADA justify their stand on safety? They simply tell the unwary public. as well as their own members, that "Mercury is made virtually harmless when it combines with other metals used to produce amalgam". Dr. Kennedy states in his book, "This is an out-and-out lie". From my honest point of view, based on years of heavy metals toxicity knowledge, I would say, he is right on target, spot on. I agree with Dr. Kennedy and other health experts who oppose to dental amalgams.

Well, another distortion of the truth is that mercury in human comes primarily from the diet, especially from seafood. In truth, we get almost seven times more mercury from dental amalgams as from fish and other seafoods. In an attempt to stem the rising tide of dentists publicly expressing concerns about using amalgam, the ADA then tried to make it unethical for dentists to remove the toxic substance from their patients. They added in their code of ethics from the following language. "The removal of amalgam restorations from the non-allergic patient for the alleged purpose of removing toxic substances from the body, when such treatment is perform solely at the recommendation or suggestion of the dentist, is improper and unethical".

Now, you might conclude from the wording that the ADA has a legitimate point, since an unscrupulous dentist could frighten his patients into paying for a very expensive procedure, whether or not it was based on good science. The real problem is that the ADA leadership knew that the medical doctors were generally unaware of the issue of amalgam toxicity, and so would not be inclined to send their patients to a dentist for removal of amalgam fillings.

Guess what. as a further safeguard against dental rogues breaking ranks, many local and state dental boards will revoke dentists licences for removing dental amalgams. Many dentists have already had their licenses revoked for even REFUSING to use dental amalgams in their practice! In other words, ADA forces dentists to harm patients so the organization can continue to charade that amalgam fillings are safe.

Here comes the pivotal question, and of course, the most often denied by the ADA. Is mercury absorbed from dental amalgam fillings? Mercury does indeed leak from dental amalgam was first discovered in 1926 by the German scientist, Dr. Alfred Stock. His findings were confirmed in 1979 by Dr.Gay and again in 1981 by Dr. Carl Svare. Dr. Svare conducted experiments in volunteers among his dental students to see if the amalgams in their mouth released mercury. One student, left during long wait to be tested and returned eating a slice of pizza. When she was tested, the doctor was shocked to see that she has enormously high mercury levels in her readings. Thinking that it might be the pizza that contained the mercury, he had it tested. When the results came back negative, he had her repeat the breath test, but this time, but this time had her chew on a piece of rubber tubing. Once again, her mercury vapor levels were sky high.

Based on this 'chewing gum study', other researchers repeated the experiment under better controlled conditions and found similiar results, which chewing dramatically increases release of mercury from dental amalgams. Check this out. The EPA sets the maximum acceptable dose of mercury, other than from air, at 10ug. The average dental amalgam filling contains around 750,000 ug of mercury!

A large number of people, especially the ones who often chew on chewing gums, not just for five minutes, but for hours in a single day. Also, when rinsed with hot water, it further increase in mercury vapor release. Well, nearly everyone consumes hot food and liquids on a daily basis. People who do not have the highest mercury vapor levels and hence the highest blood and tissue levels.

Another consideration is manipulation of your fillings by a dentist. A high speed dental drill can release mercury levels as high as 4,000 ug, 18 inches from the drill. Remember, 50 ug is the limit set by the EPA for safe occupational exposure. This high concentration of mercury is absorbed by the tissues of your mouth and distributed throughout your body. The dentist and his asisstant share in this mercury cloud too. In fact, even unaware patients sitting in the wating room are exposed to high mercury vapor levels.

It is also important to realize that approximately 80% of mercury released by your fillings is being constantly absorbed and stored in your body. For example, if your fillings release 12ug of mercury a day, in a week you will have absorbed 84ug, and in a month 360ug. A small portion of that dose will be excreted, but most of it will be stored in your body. It also known that absorbed mercury accumulates in the nervous system. In fact, studies have shown that brain levels of mercury increase about three to four folds in those with dental amalgams compared to those without. Mercury from amalgams was also found to saturate gum tissues as well as the jawbone itself.

Everyday, we do many things that increase the release of mercury vapor from amalgam fillings, chew gum, brush our teeth, have dental work done our our teeth cleaned and consume hot foods and drinks. Even undergoing general anesthesia poses a risk due to oral manipulation by the anesthesiologist during intubation and mechanical stimulation to the teeth by the endotrachial tube.

Removing amalgams without taking special precautions dramatically increases mercury blood levels for over a month. Concentrated release of mercury vapor can severely exacerbate pre-existing neurological conditions. But, once amalgam fillings are removed, mercury levels will slowly decline. Before I sign off this post, I would like to share with you a youtube video posted by Dr. David Kennedy (dentist), who revealed that mercury vapor is released from an extracted tooth. Watch it folks.


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