This first article by Dr. Joe Mercola during his week-long celebration of Mercury-Free Awareness Week is a great start for a week of information designed to increase your education about, “Why no mercury in dentistry?” even for seasoned mercury-filling disparagers. Too much detail in some sections? Scoot that cursor forward to the next topic.
Here is the first part of Dr. Mercola’s article (click the link at the bottom to read the whole thing):
This eye-opening video from the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT.org) is worth more than a thousand words when it comes to illustrating the very real danger of mercury fillings. It contains a powerful visual demonstration of how mercury vapors are released into your oral cavity every time you chew, visit the dentist, or drink hot tea or coffee, for example.
And these mercury vapors continue to be released for at least 1.5 hours after each stimulation.
The poisonous vapors are odorless, colorless and tasteless, so you can’t tell when it’s happening. But you can be sure that if you have so-called “silver fillings” in your mouth, you’re continuously exposed to mercury, which passes readily through cell membranes, across the blood-brain barrier, and into your central nervous system, where it can cause psychological, neurological, and immunological problems.
Amalgams = The Number One Source of Mercury Exposure
Dental amalgams are the primary source of mercury exposure in Americans. A single dental amalgam filling releases as much as 15 micrograms of mercury per day. The average individual has eight amalgam fillings and could absorb up to 120 micrograms of mercury per day. For comparison, eating mercury-tainted seafood will expose you to about 2.3 micrograms per day — and that is enough for scientists to call for a worldwide warning!
Unfortunately, while many have become well aware of the dangers of environmental mercury contamination, few are as well-informed when it comes to the dangers posed by dental amalgams.
Sadly, only one in four people is aware that silver amalgams contain mercury, and the dental industry is capitalizing on that ignorance. Part of the problem is that the very name “silver fillings” seems to imply they are made of silver, a misdirection that has kept a good majority of consumers in the dark for a long time. Alas, amalgams consist of more than 50 percent mercury. When confronted about this, the industry response is that the term “silver” is meant to denote the color, not the constitution…
However, dentists have also been actively persuaded to keep this information under tight wraps, and they are under no obligation whatsoever to inform their patients about the mercury content of amalgam fillings. As recently as 2009, the FDA ruled that no warning shall be issued to patients—not even to young women and parents of young children—that the mercury from the amalgam fillings is a reproductive toxin and a neurotoxin, despite the fact that pregnant women and young children are at greatest risk from mercury toxicity.
An Antiquated and Hazardous Dental Tool
In the words of Charlie Brown, president of the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry,
“Amalgam is a primitive, polluting, 19th century product that began when physicians were sawing off legs. Medicine has since moved forward.”
Unfortunately, this aspect of dentistry has not. The American Dental Association (ADA) continues to give amalgam (mercury) fillings their seal of approval, stating:
“Used by dentists for more than a century, dental amalgam is the most thoroughly researched and tested restorative material among all those in use. It is durable, easy to use, highly resistant to wear and relatively inexpensive in comparison to other materials. For those reasons, it remains a valued treatment option for dentists and their patients.”
The height of irony is that dental amalgam is shipped as a hazardous material to the dental office, and any amalgam leftover is also treated as hazardous and requires special precautions to dispose of. Yet, most dentists will readily implant this hazardous material directly into your mouth, with assurances that it’s perfectly safe and harmless!
The Health Hazards of Mercury Fillings
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can damage your brain, central nervous system and kidneys, and mixing it with other alloys and placing it in your mouth does NOT all of a sudden render it harmless… Children and fetuses whose brains are still developing are at greatest risk, but anyone can be affected. Naturally, the more amalgams you have, the greater your risk of experiencing health problems as a result.
In the featured video, they show that:
- When amalgam was placed in sheep, substantial quantities of mercury spread from the filling and accumulated in the animal’s jaw, liver, kidney and stomach after just 30 days.
- The sheep’s kidneys also dropped the ability to clear inulin by 60 percent—an indication of kidney malfunction.
- Antibiotic-resistant dystrophic bacteria was discovered in the primates’ intestinal flora, within just two weeks of receiving mercury fillings.
- Mercury fillings damage the ADP-ribosilation of brain neuronal proteins.
- When amalgam fillings were placed in pregnant sheep, mercury was immediately transferred to the placenta and every part of the fetus. After birth, the offspring’s mercury levels continued to rise as a result of ingesting the mother’s milk.
Mercury is especially damaging to your central nervous system (CNS), and studies show that mercury in the CNS causes psychological, neurological, and immunological problems including:
by Dr. Joe Mercola
Read The Entire Article at Mercola.com:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/04/mercury-poisoning-from-silver-fillings.aspx