Dr. George: Mercury-Laced Amalgams May Threaten Patient’s Health & Life (Part 2 of 2)

Dear Readers:

This article, part II, contains my answer to a question from D.C. about the amount of mercury released from silver amalgam fillings. If you missed part I, send a long SASE to Dr. George, O.V.N., P.O. Box 277, Ojai, CA  93024. The article last week was critical of the American Dental Association (A.D.A.) claims about the safety of silver amalgam fillings.

Another A.D.A. claim is that patients with amalgams don’t have the common mercury poisoning symptoms of tremors, dementia, nausea and vomiting. Of course they don’t. These symptoms are those that result after relatively large amounts of mercury are consumed.

The poisoning from amalgams is a slow, steady, low dose contamination. It is not unlike the Chernobyl tragedy. Some of those close by the explosion quickly became ill and died, but the majority receiving smaller amounts of atomic radiation suffer erosions of their health that bring on long-term future deterioration.

As with atomic radiation, mercury poisoning can end up causing an infinite number of illnesses, either directly or via their inhibiting effect on the immune system.The wide variety of illnesses and their slow development make it easy for the A.D.A.to claim all the cases reported are anecdotal and invalid. Well, even though the numbers that get sick may not seem to be great, there isn’t anything about the six mature sheep that were given conventional mercury amalgam fillings. All six of the sheep lost half their kidney function within 30 days of their insertion.

Another factor to be considered with these tooth restorations is the development of electrical currents that occur in the mouth when different kinds of metals are present in fillings and crowns. All dentists are quite aware of the number of patients who complain of pain and other symptoms when gold and silver fillings come in contact with one another but this can occur between silver fillings as well.

In reality the mouth is a miniature battery. The saliva Is a good electrolyte through which positive charges from dissimilar metals can create a current that discharges into metals that have negative charges. In a study of 80 patients, 76 had evidence of adverse currents in their mouths which, when tested with a micrometer, had charges ranging from one to 65 microamperes. Studies by Lain, Lippmann and Ullman found patients with dissimilar metals often experienced a metallic or salty taste, increased salivary secretion, burning tongue, dryness or tickling sensations in the throat, nerve shocks, loss of weight, nervous irritability, blanched or grayish patches and leukoplakia.

A microampere of current is only a millionth of an amp. This seems insignificant to everyone until they realize the brain’s electrical activity is conducted by currents that operate at billionths of an amp (mono amps). This means the current generated in a filling is from 1,000 to 100,000 times greater than that which operates the brain. Let’s remember the mouth is not too far from the brain.

More than 20 citations appear in the dental literature about adverse electrical currents in the mouth, dating as far back as 1936. Electrogalvanism between dental restoration that results in serious pathological problems can be promptly relieved by the removal of either the positive or negative restoration and their replacement with materials electrochemically balanced.

For those suffering a serious illness that is felt could be related to the mercury in amalgams must see that their dentist follow a strict protocol in the manner of their removal, as a severe worsening of their condition can result if not followed. This does not seem a worry for those who are not ill.

In general fillings are removed singly or a quarter quadrant of the mouth at a time, starting with those that have the highest negative charges. Dentists and patients who are unfamiliar with the sequential removal of amalgam protocol, can learn about what to do and what not to do by phoning a Patient Advisor at the Diagnostic Center (800) 331-2303 or (719) 473-4703. They also provide a list of dentists in the United States who are familiar with the technique.

Don’t be surprised if your dentist, like the A.D.A., doesn’t quite believe all this. So many billion of these mercury amalgams have been placed that it is not surprising that the variety of illnesses that occur, go unnoticed. Some dentists do stop their use of amalgams when they learn of a Swedish autopsy study of dentists that showed because of their work, they have 800 times more mercury in their pituitary glands than the rest of the population.

Still others are thinking twice about placing these fillings upon learning that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering fining a group of dentists in Massachusetts and Connecticut $570,000 for damage caused to the environment, because the company that purchased their scrap amalgam disposed of it improperly.

It is probably easier to see this dilemma understandably when one learns mercury is more toxic than lead. The only solutions are to reduce the contamination from both of them as soon and as much as possible.