Signs & Symptoms of Mercury Vapor Exposure from Mercury Amalgam Dental Fillings 1. Psychological Disturbances (erethysm) Irritability, Nervousness, Fits of Anger, Memory Loss, Lack of Attention, Depression, Low Self Confidence, Anxiety, Drowsiness, Shyness/timidity, Decline of Intellect, Insomnia, Low Self Control. 2. Oral Cavity Disorders Bleeding Gums, White Patches - Mouth, Stomatitis, Bone Loss Around Teeth, Loosening of Teeth, Ulcers of Gums- Palate- Tongue, Excessive Saliva, Burning of Mouth, Foul Breath, Gum Pigmentation, Metalic Taste. 3. Gastrointestinal Effects Abdominal Cramps, Colitis, Crohn's disease, Gastrointestinal Problems, Diarrhea. 4. Systemic Effects Cardiovascular, Irregular Heart Beat, Changes in Blood Pressure, Feeble or Irregular Pulse, Pain or Pressure in Chest 5. Neurologic Chronic or Frequent Headaches, Dizziness, Ringing or Noises in Ears, Fine Tremors (Hands, Feet, Eye Lids, Tongue) 6. Respiratory Persistant Cough, Emphysema, Shallow or Irregular Breathing. 7. Immunological Allergies, Asthma, Rhinitis, Sinusitis, Swollen Lymph Nodes in Neck 8. Endocrine Subnormal Temperature, Cold Clammy Hands & Feet, Excessive Perspiration, Muscle Weakness, Fatigue, Hypoxia, Edema, Loss of Appetite, Loss of Weight, Joint Pain "...The primary symptoms of mercury-poisoning are vague psychic ones. Short-time memory deteriorates. You will find it difficult to concentrate on tasks which require attention and thinking. It is easier to execute tasks that are well known rather than to learn something new. You avoid social contacts which demand that you get out of your introvert behavior. You loose your temper easily and switch between different moods for no particular reason. Little by little, a more physical kind of exhaustion is added to the condition. More and more effort is required to initiate activities and sometimes break things due to inability to co-ordinate your movements with your visual impressions (ataxia). Occasional headaches, minor involuntary muscle spasms or ticks within groups of muscles can also appear. Hands and feet become easily cold, attacks of dizziness or vertigo can occur, and periodically you may find it difficult to focus your eyes and to see clearly. Joint and muscle pains, stiffness, lumbago and similar symptoms often appear at an early stage. They can be caused or increased by low availability of the trace element selenium. Nervous heart, sometimes accompanied by a week pulse, sometimes by a hard pulse, creates a feeling of anxiety. You don't sleep well, you wake up stiff and never feel thoroughly rested. As a whole you need more sleep than before, and you are constantly tired. Some individuals develop pronounced intestinal and stomach disturbances. Bloating is common and diarrhea can alternate with constipation. From 50 to 200 micrograms mercury from amalgam daily passes the gastrointestinal tract. There is usually irritation where mercury first interacts with tissues. The upper respiratory tract easily becomes chronically inflamed and symptoms in mouth appear. The gums bleed when you brush your teeth, red and white irritations (lichen, leukoplakia) araise, blisters and sensitivity to certain nutritives develop, ypur teeth ache, the whole jaw can become more or less inflamed, and some persons develop sinusitis. Metal taste in your mouth is a direct sign of metal-poisoning (mercury, copper). The more poisoned you are, the more serious and chronic your problems become. The piruitary gland will be affected which often leads to frequent urination. When the thyroid gland is affected secondary effects on metabolism can appear. Both glands accumulate mercury. neurological symptoms such as numbness, hypersensitivity and paralysis exacerbate. It is often hard to determine if the cause is in the nervous or circulatory systems..." ..........And I thought it was just menopause !

Nail changes and loss of hair: cardinal signs of mercury poisoning from hair bleaches and more!......... mercury poisoning associated with beauty cream--Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, 1996. There's a lot more, but I didn't wanna be an alarmist! lol

I've got a mouthful of fillings from eating nothing but soda and candy as a kid, and here, I've been telling myself my problems are perimenopausal!! They'd better be, because there is NO WAY I'm gonna sit in a dentist's chair and have all these things removed!!! Good info, tho' Jimi! (This smiley icon has great teeth!)

Hi Jimi and everyone. I had a lot of mercury containing dental fillings and had them removed about 5 years ago, and replaced with fillings which are supposed to be biocompatible and non-toxic for my body. Prior to having my fillings removed I used to drink (weak) hot coffee and chew (gum etc.) from more to night. (For those that may not know, the heat and chewing would increase the release of mercury from the teeth. Two points. OK three. Careful removal of the fillings by someone knowledgable with good equipment is important, since removal of the fillings is a potential long-term health risk. The composition of the replacement fillings should be non-toxic. Some of the symptoms mentionned above by Jimi, while having an uncanny similarity to those symptoms which some of us attribute to peri/menopausal symptoms, are general ones which could be associated with a variety of illnesses. We also have to remember that symptom (of peri/meno): exacerbates existing conditions. Since mercury containing dental amalgams have been used widespread in our population for nearly one hundred years, it would be difficult to find "controls" to see if the fillings were doing harm, or rather just how much harm they are doing. In older people who had their teeth extracted and wear false teeth the health enhancing effects of removing the fillings can be seen. (I am not suggesting that we remove our teeth. ) Anyone know of long-lived people with a mouth full of fillings? Now remembering how I felt when I was a bit sicker, not so long ago, I feel the need to assure, to encourage. Practices of tooth brushing, eating and drinking may be adapted to minimise the amount of mercury coming from the fillings. Supportive nutrients can be used to build up the overall health and help eliminate mercury. Additional sources of mercury contamination can be avoided. Hope I didn't put you to sleep... unless you have insomnia of course.

I think both sides have decent arguments, but you might want to take a look at quackwatch.com http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelate...cs/mercury.html The site is not commercial, doesn't sell anything.

Hi Aimee! ~ Thanks for that. I have read the quackwatch article, but am not convinced anyone knows what they are talking about. Modern technology does have it's drawbacks and people in the know are sometimes biased by the rewards of scare tactics and or realities and they are varied and many. How many times have we heard it before, they thought DDT was safe, so they sprayed it all over the kids in schools in the 50's....how dumb was that! , and we are just finding out about the dangers of using mobile phones and the younger the user, the greater the danger! high tension wires,microwaves, TV and computer screens, the carpet on your floor, the granite on your bench top! The food they sell to us now is loaded with phytoestrogens and all sorts of hormones that are causing all sorts of problems in our minds and bodies but doesn't contain enough of the nutrients we need, so we are encouraged to take suppliments of all kinds, and not to mention genetic engeneering. The dangers are everywhere! There are a lot of big companies out there getting rich from a lot of scare tactics and most of us have been conned at some point in our lives. We live in a world gone mad and protecting one's own self interests is the order of the day regardless of the implications on the masses. Amalgam fillings is just another one of those things that falls into that category. WHO DOES ONE BELIEVE? I, as you all know, could go on and on and on about the injustices of the world and the people in power and our self centredness etc. etc. THEY tell us what they want us to believe, but it is usually not for the right reasons. Amalgam fillings are no different - someone will benefit weather you keep them or not, but it may not necessarily be you! OH! What was I thinking when I posted that......Man a lot of worms in this can......

I agree with you Jimi, they tell you what they want you to think, really. Potatoes give you cancer blah,blah, then they don't. Yet they want to feed GM crops to cattle, which will get to us thru their milk! Thank goodness for Greenpeace. We have been told not to eat farmed salmon (because of colourings) and also oily fish (because they pick up contaminants from the North Sea) too often. Now we've been told that the good outweighs the bad. Duh. Perhaps they mean oily fish like mackarel and not fish that live in oil slicks! Anyhoo, what happened when the amalgam fillings were removed. Was your health improved Whitehorses?

Alice3, I was healthy when my amalgams were removed and I have been on a slippery slope down since then. However I started feeling better as I approached menopause. I also have been gradually building up a healthier lifestyle, although my lifestyle wasn't so unhealthy before, at least not more unhealthy than the average person's lifestyle. Taking the fillings out can cause negative health effects. I had some the same night that my first "quadrant" of fillings were removed (memory problems and a night sweat). Overall I don't know what effect the filling removal has had on my body. I still am glad that I had my fillings removed. I wonder about the materials used to replace amalgam fillings too. In my case the materials are supposed to be biocompatible and not contain any metals. I took a brief look at the website mentionned above and immediately had some problems with the information that they were providing. It seemed biased. One example was of the woman who sued the dentist who removed her amalgam fillings for malpractise. In fact the dentist was said to have damaged multiple teeth when he removed the fillings. I think the problem was other than removal of amalgams! Does anyone besides me get tired of the lack of balanced, honest discussion of pros and cons? It seems to me that lawyers and their approach has taken over the world.

WhiteHorses, I think you are right. I just think we should always look at all sides of issues. I find things generally fall in the middle, if you know what I mean. And I always question whether someone will (dentists) stand to make a lot of money by telling you to do something. I think most of today's dentists (more than 80% still use amalgam) sincerely believe there is no harm in them and have them themselves (why would the majority intentionally poison their patients when the alternative is available?). But that doesn't mean one day we won't find out otherwise. But we have to go with the available evidence and data--what else can we do, reject all science? Also, the media LOVES scare stories (no one would tune in if they said everything was fine). I was talking about that today with my eye surgeon and he said, "They NEVER get anything right or only tell part of the story with the wrong conclusion of a study."

Has anyone else had their silver fillings removed and felt better after? The things I am reading about the mercury fillings is alarming.
What is a safe way to remove them ?

Apparently you have to have loads of vitamin c for a few days then when you go the dentist has to put a rubber sheet in your mouth so you don't swallow any and they constantly s*ck the amalgam out while drilling. All your amalgam fillings are removed in one go.
Apparently you have to see a dentist specialising in this treatment , not just an ordinary one. Some dentists have been in trouble in the UK for just drilling out the old and replacing with white fillings and that's not the correct procedure.

Some people reckon you do more harm by disturbing them.

It's still an open verdict. Perhaps it's a good idea to start having white ones from now on...in case.

Gee that sounds like a lot of trouble to go through to have them removed and then how do you find a dentist who knows the proper way to remove them.... I have so many silver ones now I wonder if any of what I have read about them is true ?
If they are as dangerous as some say they are then why would they put them in teeth to begin with?

My dentist won't use amalgam anymore, but he doesn't believe in removing all your old fillings at once.

As my old ones need replacing, I have them removed and replaced by another type of filling material (he doesn't specialize in amalgam removal, but does use a dam...that's the rubber thing that blocks the gunk he's drilling from going down your throat).

Yuk. Sometimes it amazes me how much they expect to put in your mouth in one go!

Just got back from the dentist and all is well (no cavities). The thing is, I get pains in my old amalgam fillings every now and then and I like to be sure that it's not cavities.

I would like some input from you gals. The dentist suggests that I remove the fillings and replace them with porcelain (not composite). It's quite costly, and since my mouth is very sensitive and I've read about risks in removing amalgam fillings, I'm really afraid to change anything! On the other hand, I've also read so much about the bad effects of amalgam (mercury slowing leaking into your system) that I'm wondering whether I should just get rid of these two fillings and have done with it. Any ideas anyone?

Hi LadyB!

I worked in the dental field for 12 years and this is definitely a controversial subject. The ADA insists that amalgam fillings are safe. Amalgam means a bunch of metals have been amalgamated--they are no longer in their separate states, so they can't actually come out of their new state. That's what they say anyway...

Supposedly mercury can't actually leach out of amalgam fillings. There are studies that support that view, but then a study will come out saying, well, maybe a little itty bitty amount does. I think the final verdict is still out.

I myself don't believe that amalgam fillings are the evil health hazzard that people blame for all their ills. There are enough other pollutants in our environment that could just as easily be the culprit. We've lived in the industrial age for so long now that any number of things could be the cause for health issues.

However, that said, if your amalgam fillings are actually causing you pain, or are breaking down with age, by all means do something about it. The reason your dentist has suggested porcelain is because it doesn't have to be replaced as often as composite fillings. The problem is, though, if he wants to put them on the occlusal surfaces (biting surfaces), porcelain is somewhat unforgiving on the opposing teeth. It's hard and hits the opposing teeth hard, which can cause pain.

Still, there is always the chance that porcelain can fracture. When I was a dental assistant, a patient would occasionally come in with the complaint of porcelain that had fractured off their crown ("cap")

I don't know if this "dissertation" has helped any , but I wish you luck in making your decision!

Shel

Hi Shel

How are you? I've missed chatting.

Great to see you again and for taking the time to share your knowledge with me. This is not a decision I want to rush into and I'm still hoping that the pain will go away altogether (it comes and goes). As you suggest, the problem is that the amalgam fillings are really old (at least 20 yrs). The dentist thinks that there may be some tiny cracks because they are really sensitive. Thanks for telling me all about the porcelain. I tend to have a hard bite and I certainly don't want to cause myself problems. I'll take this up with the dentist when I see her next time. As I said, this decision is nothing I want to rush into right away. And because it's so expensive and takes time, I'll really have to think about it carefully.

Have a really good week-end!
(((HUGS)))

Glad to find this thread. I too have really old fillings 20+ My dentist is watching my upper left side as I have one that is starting to cave in and crack. I notice lately that I have more sensitivity there as well as one that I have on my upper right.

I've been doing some reading and now have concerns about the removal and making sure that it is done safely.

I had thought about having a composite replacement.

LadyB, keep us posted as to what you decide as there will be a few of us facing the same situation.

before i knew what was going on with me, i had looked into mercury poisoning from my fillings. and like someone else had said on this post, the symptoms are so similar. i had a few fillings replaced with crowns, but the symptoms remained.
i had my dentist use a rubber dam. it was rather disturbing that most of the dental assistants didn't know what one was or how to put one in. why don't they teach this in dental school????
anyway, i'm due back in in a couple of weeks to have a filling replaced due to age and wear and tear. i'll be glad when they're all out eventually. probably look better too when i laugh (rarely these days).

I've had all mine removed except one small one. I see a Holistic Dentist and drive 2 1/2 hours to get there!! He's awesome and wish he was closer. Amalgam is linked with all you mentioned and is very dangerous. All our kids started out right, thankfully because I knew my stuff before they were born. Amalgam free kids. It's amazing though that the pediatric dentist they go to STILL gets on my case about it and tells me amalgam is fine and lasts longer. He's is SO wrong and wasn't taught about the toxicity of amalgam. I had to tell him firmly a couple visits ago (the kids go every 6 months for cleaning) that I'd really appreciate it if he'd just check them after their cleaning and IF they need a cavity filled to respect my decision to have composite and leave it alone. He hasn't said a thing since. They also don't understand my not wanting floride for the kids....the treatments....he's totally clueless and it's sad. But then again, I guess we've been the ones with the incredibly healthy kids that are weird. LOL Meaning they aren't vaccinated, don't have amalgam fillings and don't use floride to name a few. Go figure - we are more normal than anyone.....it's just that we know the truth and take the right path!! Thanks for posting this valuable information. I cry when I see kids getting amalgam because the parents simply do not know the harm that will come to their fragile nervous systems from the mercury. I'm close to having my ND (Naturopathic Doctor) but had to stop for a while seeing people because it got way too busy raising 4 girls AND now going through menopause. But when I was seeing families the first thing I did was have them open their mouth to see how many fillings they had. If they had a mouthful I thought to myself "Boy do we have detox work to do!!" Hugs to all as we progress through this big change....that results in many many wonderful things in the body, mind and spirit after we are through it!!

Sheila and LauraJane

Thank you very much for responding! Please tell me more about the removal part. Was it painful? Did you have temporary fillings for a while? What did you replace the fillings with - was it composite or porcelain?

Do let me know?

It's not any different than having a filling replaced. The doctor determines which ones can be done and generally does only one part, say the lower left,etc....at least that's what my Doc did. If I needed a crown I had porcelain. All the fillings were replaced with Composite. Before I found the Holistic Doc we had a doc in a nearby town that we were referred to years ago. He wasn't exactly Holistic but did recommend composite rather than amalgam, so at least we weren't debating with him chronically. Anyway, when I started with the new doc he found pieces of mercury that weren't removed properly before the new composite was put in. To make matter worse this was a crown that was put on, so he said the metals were reacting with each other and causing me my jaw, nervous system issues at the time. Once he removed the crown and got all the mercury pieces out (he showed me them on the x-ray and there actually were quite a few small pieces not completely removed) he put on a new crown and all my symptoms left. Thankfully this was the major part that I had done, all the rest were simply having the amalgam removed and replacing the filling. They treat this mercury like very toxic stuff at his office....they all wear masks and they shield my mouth with this plastic stretchy stuff and the only thing showing is my tooth.....so it protects my tissue from the mercury vapors exiting. They also have a very sophisticated vacuum system that s*cks up the mercury and vapors quickly before it hits the air. Very different from the doctor we used to go to who just did things pretty much the normal way but used composite. I was pretty concerned with his office because he had a pregnant assistant helping and she was just sitting there, not protected, while he took out my filling. The doctor told me he just took extra minerals and he was fine. Unbelievable!! Anyway it's worth having done, even if you just have a few done at a time. My Holistic Doctor says it's so toxic it's pretty important to get them done right away if you have a lot. I have just one more spec that needs taking out at some point, but all the other teeth are done. So being he's so far I'll probably have that one replaced when I have my next cleaning. Too bad my parents didn't know of the toxicity of amalgam....but live and learn. I'm thankful my kids are mercury free - at least in their mouths!! Best to you as you venture to rid yourself of amalgam AND the domino effect that comes health wise because of it. MS is highly linked with amalgam fillings among other disease processes. One gal I worked with years ago had a mouth full of amalgam and also had a pretty significant case of MS. She wouldn't even consider having them replaced, so it was a big battle to say the least trying to get her on top. She eventually gave up and is really bad off.........it would have been great to have her listen in the beginning because I'm quite certain she wouldn't be in the situation she's in now. Take Care.

I'd like to get all of my fillings replaced because they are getting so old (like 40 years!), but my dentist (DMD) said that if you attempt to remove large fillings, you run a high risk of damaging or killing the entire tooth. Since I have already had one implant and it cost nearly $3,000, including the crown, I don't want to risk that. (That tooth actually cost $5,000, because I had a failed root canal and crown prior.)

He is gradually going to try to replace the smaller fillings and just cap the larger ones when they begin to appear troublesome.

Dental bills are more expensive than medical bills anymore, for me anyway!