20+ QUESTIONS ON DENTAL AMALGAM AND MERCURY HEALTH RISKS: DID YOU KNOW?

These questions are posted as a guide to increase consumer, patient and parent awareness about a toxic substance - mercury - that is mixed with amalgam and installed in our teeth without any labels, warnings, or the basic human and medical right of informed written consent in the United States.

20+ QUESTIONS ON DENTAL AMALGAM AND MERCURY HEALTH RISKS: DID YOU KNOW?

THE AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION (ADA)

1.  The ADA was founded in 1859 (155 years ago) as a pro-amalgam trade association?

2.  A 1990 60 Minutes special, Is There Poison in Your Mouth? the highest-watched 60 Minutes show at the time, was pulled and never again shown or referred to on network TV? 

3.  The ADA put a gag order clause in its Code of Ethics saying that dentists who promote removal of amalgam for health reasons will be expelled, and expelled dentists until the courts put a stop to it? 

4.  Center for Responsive Politics calls ADA a ‘heavy hitter’ for campaign contributions, legal expenses?

5.  The ADA is also a commercial organization, with 83 patents in 38 years, while the AMA has none? 

DENTISTS AND DENTAL PLANS

6.  There are serious health warnings on mercury amalgam that dentists receive from manufacturers?

7.  About half of dentists don’t use amalgam any more, out of concerns for safety or environment?

8.  Dentists who want to teach at US dental schools keep quiet any concerns or reservations about the health impacts of amalgam?

9.  Dental plans are not cost neutral, the vast majority only pay the amount it would cost to put more amalgam back in the back of your mouth, and deny appeals despite medical proof of toxicity?

10. Removal of amalgam by regular dentists without special techniques and equipment beyond a dental dam increases exposure to mercury vapor, while biologic dentists use special training and equipment?

DIAGNOSTIC TESTS AND REPORTING

11. Blood, urine and hair tests for mercury levels are not that reliable with false negatives, as how your metabolism processes mercury determines if it shows up in tests, or stays in body, cells and brain?

12. More reliable tests for mercury damage may include urinary porphyrin levels, and glutathione levels?

13. A biocompatibility blood test can determine, among the vast quantity of dental metals and materials, which are most reactive, somewhat reactive and least reactive to your individual immune system?

14. Simple genetic tests can find at-risk gene types impacting methylation and detoxification pathways?

15. Reporting amalgam reactions is not mandatory, nor billable, and is confusing, so rarely happens?

16. The FDA considers sensitivity or reactivity reactions rare, because they are rarely reported?

17. You can and should report adverse events to the FDA, and report unsafe medical devices?

18. You can and should also report adverse events to the State Dental Board, and Poison Control Hotline?

THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (FDA)

19. Mercury amalgam is considered a medical device, a prosthetic device, not a substance, by the FDA?

20. The FDA long grandfathered it “generally recognized at safe,” never rigorously tested or proven safe?

21. As a result of a lawsuit, the FDA only ruled it Class II, with a guidance document for manufacturers to dentists in 2009 stating that mixed metals should not be used in the same or abutting teeth, because it creates galvanic micro-electrical currents that can degrade mercury in amalgam?

22. The FDA Commissioner recused herself because she sat on the board of an amalgam distributor for six years before taking this position?

23. The FDA ignored recommendations of its own Scientific Advisory Panels in 2010 to restrict its use and post warnings for use in children, pregnant women and people with a known allergy to mercury?

24. Thomas Duplinsky of Yale SOM published a 2012 study finding dentists have higher prescription usage for neurological, psychiatric, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases than matched controls?

GENES AND IMMUNE SYSTEM

25. People with ApoE4, CPOX4, or with a number of other common genetic mutations (SNPs) affecting methylation and detoxification do not clear mercury well, so have higher rates of toxicity?

26. People with these gene types have higher rates of Alzheimers, autoimmune and movement disorders?

27. Genetic screening diagnostic tests for the above, and for immune pathways are covered by insurance?

28. Mercury can cause allergies and skin reactions to yeasts, sugars, wheat, gluten, corn and soy?

29. Monkeys and sheep with amalgam placed in their teeth immediately start redistributing it throughout their bodies and brains? And get very ill pretty quickly when amalgam is put in their teeth?

HEALTH AND HEALTH IMPACTS

30. Mothers pass mercury on to our children via the placenta and breast milk?

31. There are changes in children’s urinary porphyrins evident soon after amalgam is installed?

32. Loss of teeth does not protect one from mercury poisoning, as the body and brain burden persists if one does not clear mercury well, or follow an effective, medically supervised detox protocol?

33. Populations with high amalgam exposures include midlifers, boomers and older adults, Native Americans, the Military, Medicaid patients, and all who don’t know or can’t afford alternatives?

34. Crematoria are exempt from adequate pollution controls, and have no provisions to remove mercury amalgam dental fillings prior to cremation? 

35. Health disparities and chronic health problems have proven correlations with amalgam exposure, but this is not considered sufficient proof to act to ban or restrict its use?

36. James S Woods, an author of the Children’s Amalgam Trial in Portugal, reanalyzed data by gender and gene type, publishing new studies that amalgam led to kidney and behavioral problems in some boys?

OTHER NATIONS

37. Amalgam was banned in Norway and Denmark in 2008, Sweden 2009, and other nations restrict it?

38. The third largest Israeli dental plan will not pay for amalgams in children?

39. Parker Hannifin, a major engineering company that self-insures, pays for amalgam removal to protect the health of its employees, and only pays for fillings using safer, biocompatible alternatives?

40. The World Health Organization has called for its end in dentistry, and under a new International Treaty signed in 2013, many nations are working to phase out its use in dentistry worldwide?

41. The EEC is laying the groundwork to follow the Scandinavian countries and stop using it?

WHAT STATES CAN DO (AND CANNOT DO)

42. Courts have ruled that states cannot ban amalgam because of the Interstate Commerce Clause, as long as the FDA maintains in is safe, despite the recommendations of the FDA Scientific Advisory Panel?

43. That there are no informed consents required or health warnings shared with patients, except in the four informed consent states of Maine, California, Connecticut and Vermont, and Philadelphia, PA?

44. Consumers do not get a label or the most basic right of informed written consent for use of amalgam?

45. The FDA was sued by the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology et al in March 2014 for violating the federal APA law by not responding to petitions for reconsideration for years?

46. What can we do?  What ideas do you have?  What can you do?  What can we all do together?

 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. 

Alzheimer's and the Fillings in Our Teeth - October 6, 2012

By Boyd Haley and Laura Henze Russell/Guest columnists 

MetroWest Daily News
Posted Oct. 6, 2012 at 12:01 AM Updated Oct 6, 2012 at 6:13 AM 

People, families and communities across the state and the nation are holding Walks to End Alzheimer's. As a result of rapidly advancing scientific research within the U.S. and a host of other nations, we now know enough to Run to End Alzheimer's.

Not someday, but soon. Not never, but starting right now.

The human body and brain evolved over centuries and eons in a natural environment. Gradually. Then industrialization hit, and better living through chemistry, biochemistry, metallurgy, electronics, radiology, technology, and nanotechnology took flight.

Unfortunately, our cells, membranes, nerves, and genes cannot keep up. They recognize new things as invaders, and try to fight them off. Autoimmune reactions, inflammation, and chronic diseases are the result. We read about big words like beta amyloid, demyelination, and oxidative stress, which are different ways of saying that the ways things work inside us go awry.

The germ theory of disease works for germs, but it does not explain the root of many of today’s health problems. It turns out the keys to the castle lie in understanding that today’s big chronic, devastating, costly diseases – like Alzheimer’s – are the result of nature, nurture, and exposures, both toxic and pathogenic. Pathogens are micro-organisms that can cause disease. Toxins are harmful chemicals, substances and metals that affect the body, brain, cells, and organs. They do so by messing up basic biochemistry, cell membranes, enzymes, and the like.The disease processes in the brain resulting from heavy metals poisoning and from chemical exposures are fairly similar. How our bodies, brains, cells and organs react to toxic substances varies by the substance, varies by our genes, and varies by their interactions over time (epigenetics). It is as if the instruments in a symphony are run over by a fleet of trucks, then they don’t work and sound so good anymore. Some stop playing altogether. Having multiple types of exposures makes it synergistically worse.

One of the biggest hidden health issues of our time is mercury toxicity from mercury amalgam dental fillings. These fillings have long been proven to off-gas mercury vapors in the presence of heat and abrasion. Not only when fillings are placed, but when they are removed, and also when you chew, grind teeth, drink hot liquids, shower, sauna, and jar your jaw in accidents, sports, and falls. The levels at which off-gassing happens is greater than previously thought.Research at multiple universities has demonstrated that exposure of normal brain tissue to mercury causes the same “footprint” of biochemical abnormalities as found in Alzheimer’s disease brain tissue. It shows that at very low concentrations, mercury and only mercury among the heavy metals, induces the disintegration of the “natural structure” that holds a neuron in place, leading to neurofibrillary tangles - a well-known diagnostic hallmark of Alzheimer’s. Since mercury vapors escape from amalgam fillings over time, and 80 percent on average enters the body, exposure would exacerbate the symptoms of anyone suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Is the problem increasing? Yes, markedly. The U.S. National Health and Nutritional Evaluation Surveys of 2000 and 2006 have shown that 2 percent and 30 percent, respectively, of American women have detectable levels of inorganic mercury in their blood. This 15-fold increase in women with inorganic mercury (not from fish) indicates that the overall exposure to mercury is increasing in mothers and putting our infants at risk for neurological diseases.

There is also hard medical, scientific and toxicological evidence that mercury is especially toxic to those with the ApoE4 gene, who do not clear mercury well. Sadly, but not surprisingly, ApoE4 is associated with higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease, and lots of other diseases as well. Researchers in the U.S. and other nations have found elevated mercury levels in the brains and cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer’s victims. Many Alzheimer’s victims show classic signs of mercury poisoning, but these signs are no longer recognized by most doctors.

As we unlock the fundamental causes of Alzheimer’s disease, we can unlock the keys to health and recovery. The body and brain is amazingly resilient when it is not under toxic assault. We can develop ways for those with the gene type that doesn't clear mercury well to better clear it. This is important, because mercury poisoning is the thief that keeps on taking. With the wrong gene type, mercury will stay in your body, cells and brains long after your fillings have been removed, replaced or fallen out.

We will be far better off, as people, as families, and as a nation, if we focus on health, reduce the impact of toxins, and let our bodies, brains and cells get healthy again.

We need regular, periodic testing for heavy metals and toxins as part of regular check-ups. We all experience lifelong, repeated, multiple, and multipoint exposures, so this just makes sense. We need mandatory reporting of adverse health impacts, to learn the scope of the problem.Where there are safer alternatives, such as for mercury dental amalgam, we should use them, and stop the nonsense of pretending amalgam is hard, safe and inert for all time – as long as it is in the mouth. We know it is a hazardous substance before it goes into the mouth, and after it comes out. Does the tooth fairy keep it safe and harmless in our teeth?

The FDA should immediately follow the recommendations of its own Scientific Advisory Panel in 2010 to restrict use of amalgam in young children, pregnant women, and people with a known “sensitivity” or “allergy” to mercury. Better yet, based on the growing medical, scientific and toxicological studies in the U.S. and a host of other countries, ban it, as Norway, Denmark and Sweden did in 2008-2009, with the EEC now on a track to follow suit.

This disease is devastating our citizens, our families, our nation. Let’s run, not walk, to end Alzheimer’s.  

Boyd Haley is President of CTI Science, board member of the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology, and professor emeritus of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky. Laura Henze Russell is the founder and principal of Hidden River Health Challenge.