Sept. 9: Bottom line at the end of Mercury-free Dentistry Week:
Refuse the placement of any new mercury-silver fillings. Getting it out of your mouth is another issue. Go slow…ly here. The mercury and vapor exposure possibilities are even at a higher risk during
mercury filling removal. There are techniques that have been in practiced
for decades in our office and hundreds of dental office around the country.
Please refer to our “10 questions to ask” of any dentist
to whom you would consider going to for replacement of even one mercury filling.
Thank you to Charlie Brown with Consumers for Dental Choice and Dr. Joseph Mercola for an outstanding week!
By Dr. Mercola
With Consumers for Dental Choice
Story at-a-glance
- Thanks to deceptive, manipulative efforts by the American Dental Association (ADA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), most Americans are unaware that “silver” fillings are 50 percent mercury
- The ADA has historically covered up the fact that mercury is used in dental fillings while taking money from Coca-Cola and other companies whose products promote the formation of cavities
- 50 percent of dentists are now mercury-free; you can help abolish the use of mercury in dentistry by supporting one of them
- We are on the brink of prompting real change in the fight for mercury-free dentistry; action items are included so you can help!
Mercury is an incredibly potent neurotoxin; it doesn’t take much to cause serious damage because it’s an absolute poison. If you were to take the amount of mercury in a typical thermometer and put it in a small lake, that lake would be closed down due to environmental hazards.
Yet, amounts much higher than that are readily put into your mouth if you receive a “silver” amalgam dental filling, as the majority of material in the filling is actually mercury.
Amalgam or “Silver” Fillings are Actually Mercury Fillings
It’s estimated that 75 percent of Americans are ignorant about that fact that amalgam fillings are actually 50 percent mercury, and this is no accident. The American Dental Association (ADA) popularized the deceptive term “silver fillings” so consumers would think amalgam is made mainly of silver when actually it has twice as much mercury as silver.
As Charlie Brown, who founded the Consumers for Dental Choice in 1996, stated:
“The American Dental Association is basically a gigantic fraud agent when it comes to amalgam because for years they promoted amalgam as silver fillings and they’re not. It’s a gigantic consumer fraud perpetuated by thousands of dentists in the United States who use the word silver fillings when by far the most prevalent material is mercury.
The FDA defends amalgam and says the word silver is because they are silver colored. The FDA knows better. They know they are perpetuating a lie. The Food and Drug Administration has basically been the agent of the American Dental Association in protecting the use of mercury fillings.
That protection continues even though two scientific panels in a row – these are scientists handpicked by FDA itself – the scientists have come in and to the surprise of the FDA staff have told the FDA staff, you’re wrong. You’ve got to stop amalgam use for pregnant women. You’ve got to stop amalgam use for children. You’ve got to do both of them now and you’ve got to make sure that every consumer knows and every parent knows that amalgam is not silver, that it’s mercury.”
Not only are most Americans unaware that silver fillings contain mercury, but many are also unaware of what risks that poses to your health. Once you get a mercury filling, your risk continues because every time you chew, the mercury releases a vapor into your mouth that deposits slowly in your tissues over time and does not disappear.
What are the Health Risks of Mercury Fillings?
The metallic mercury used by dentists to manufacture dental amalgam is shipped as a hazardous material to the dental office. Any amalgam leftover is also treated as hazardous and requires special precautions to dispose of, as it should because it can cause wide-ranging damage to your health.
Charlie Brown states:
” … mercury is a reproductive toxin. Meaning, of course, it can harm your unborn baby. It’s a neurotoxin meaning it can harm your brain. It’s a nephrotoxin meaning it will harm your kidneys. There is no safe level of mercury. This dentist is playing Russian roulette with your child or you if he or she is giving you a mercury filling.”
Virtually any kind of stimulation can cause these fillings to release mercury. Eating, drinking, brushing your teeth, grinding your teeth, chewing gum, anything. If you want to see the vapors released for yourself, watch this shocking video.
Mercury vapor from the amalgams passes readily through cell membranes, across the blood-brain barrier, and into your central nervous system, where it causes psychological, neurological, and immunological problems. Children and fetuses, whose brains are still developing, are most at risk, but really anyone can be impacted.
Further, dental mercury is the number one source of mercury in our wastewater, so dentists are handing the clean-up bill for their pollution to taxpayers and water ratepayers. And this mercury ends up in your food supply, where it can cause continued damage to your health if you eat fish and other contaminated seafood.
Does the American Dental Association Want You to Eat Candy?
You may be aware that poor diet, including eating sugar, is the primary reason why people develop cavities in their teeth. The ADA puts out propaganda that they want you to eat less sugar, and hence get fewer cavities, but in reality they have maintained ties with makers of some of the most detrimental products to your teeth, namely soda!
Brown states:
“The American Dental Association wants you to get more cavities. They were taking a million bucks a year from Coca Cola until they were discovered. They tell you they want to reduce cavities. They want more cavities. The World Dental Federation takes money from the Mars Candy colossus which is the Wrigley, the Mars candy bar, the Snickers and all that. They take money from them.
Their propaganda is we want you to eat less sugar. But the candy companies and Coca Cola would not be shoveling money to the American Dental Association and the World Dental Federation if they really thought the ADA believed them. You never see the ADA doing public service out saying, “eat less, don’t eat candy, don’t eat sugar” because it’s good for business. The more sugar, the more money and that’s why amalgam is used.”
Amalgam was introduced in the Civil War era by the new American Dental Association, which won a political battle with the physicians of the mouth, who said using mercury in oral health care is malpractice. Florida dentist James Hardy, in his book Mercury Free, refers to the creation of amalgam and the creation of the American Dental Association as the “twin-birth.”
The truth is, amalgam is a primary money-maker for conventional dentists; amalgams are quick and easy, and dentists make more money per chair per day implanting mercury.
50 Percent of Dentists are Now Mercury-Free
We are on the brink of prompting real change in the fight for mercury-free dentistry, and this is largely because of readers like you who have taken the time to write to the FDA to let your voice be heard on this issue. Consumers for Dental Choice and World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, of which Charlie Brown is president, have also been major catalysts for change. They played an integral role in allowing dentists the freedom to tell the truth that there is mercury in the fillings.
Prior to that the American Dental Association actually had a gag order of sorts that threatened to pull the licenses of dentists who mentioned the “M” word (mercury) to their patients! At that time, in the 1990s, only 3 percent of dentists were mercury-free.
Brown and his organizations took the matter to the courts and said dentists have a right under the United States constitution to talk to their patients, to advertise, and to tell the truth – and they won. Now dentists can say the “M” word, and as an extension of that 50% of dentists are mercury-free! This is one of they ways you can vote with your pocketbook and have enormous economic and environmental influence. Find a mercury-free dentist!