Mercury, teeth and the environment

The use of mercury fillings is controversial. There are many sources of information on the net which either support their use, or insist that they are destroying our health and the environment. With what seems to be legitimate information on both sides of the argument, what are we to believe?

The American Dental Association website states that amalgam (which contains mercury) is an important material due to its durability, strength, price and the fact that it can be used in areas with high moisture such as below the gum line. The ADA has also conducted a series of studies which compared children with and without amalgam fillings in the areas of kidney function and IQ. These studies showed no adverse effects.

On the other hand, many dentists refuse to use mercury amalgam for many reasons. Check out the blog Evidence Based Dentistry where you can view a video called "smoking teeth". This popular video is also available on YouTube. David Kennedy DDS is a retired dentist who formed IAOMT, the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology. Through the IAOMT website, his blog and You Tube videos, you can learn about how mercury toxicity may actually be damaging to our health, as well as the environment.

In Kennedy's videos, a demonstration is provided using a 25 year old and a 50 year old extracted teeth with amalgam fillings. With the use of specific light, mercury gas can be seen rising from these teeth when minimal friction is applied. In the mouth, this gas can be released through chewing, drinking hot liquids, cleaning and drilling.

Perhaps on an individual basis, mercury fillings are safe to use. But consider the professionals who are routinely exposed to this mercury gas throughout their work day.

Another consideration is Kennedy's claim that mercury exposure can cause Autism, Alzheimer's, lowered IQ in children, and damage to every organ in the body. Although the ADA has completed studies showing that children do not have negative effects of IQ or kidney function from amalgam fillings, these studies do not extend to immunizations containing mercury, nor do they measure the life long effects of amalgam use.

The root problem with the conflicting information, in my opinion, is partially due to the fact that dental care is treated as a separate entity from medical care. What happens in your mouth directly affects the rest of your body, and as all dental and medical professionals are aware. Likewise, what happens within the body can affect dental health. For example, people suffering from TMJ, or TMJD (Temporal Mandibular Joint Dysfunction, a disorder of the jaw joint) know all too well of this issue. Their doctors can offer little help and refer the patient to a dentist. Dental professionals have made many failed attempts at helping patients and are now coming to the conclusion that TMJ is related more to nerves. In other words, it is often psychological (with the exception of individuals who develop TMJ from injuries or other trauma). Anyone who has experienced TMJ symptoms will definitely argue that there is far more going on in there than mere psychological concerns, such as severe pain, popping of the jaw joint, abnormal tract of motion of the jaw, headaches, grinding or clenching of teeth, lockjaw, and often, fractured teeth.

The facts remain the same. Sometimes a problem is not solely dental or medical, and professionals need to work more closely with each other to solve them. We know that mercury exposure is toxic, in fact, miners at the turn of the century were dying from exposure to high levels of mercury. So why then, are we putting it in our mouths? And what does this have to do with the environment?

Environmentally speaking, when old mercury fillings are improperly disposed of, they return to the environment. A patient who has had a mercury filling replaced rinses his or her mouth and spits into the sink, leaking traces of mercury into the water. It is only logical to assume that this returns to the water supply and into the bodies of fish, which we now know that eating too much fish can lead to mercury poisoning.

Kennedy points out in his blog that after the city of San Fransisco required dental offices to install mercury separators, mercury levels in local waterways began to lower.

This is a topic in serious need of research conducted by individuals outside of special interest groups such as the ADA and dental communities. For the time being, we should all learn more and make careful considerations when it comes to our health. If you wish to avoid mercury fillings or immunizations containing mercury, ask questions! Alternative fillings can be used, and special procedures can be used to lower your exposure while removing old amalgam fillings. This is a controversial topic and one professional opinion may be completely opposite of that of another professional opinion. The best we can do for now is to educate and decide for ourselves, before having dental work done.