Has anyone experienced amalgams being removed? If so how long did it take for the dentist to remove 1?
I'm slightly alarmed after visiting a dentist in Baar. He said he would remove 4 amalgams and refill them with glasionomer ciment in less than 1 hour (!) and would charge under CHF 1000 for the whole operation (including an Xray). When I asked him about protection he told me he'd use a vacuum suction and nothing else.
I've been told amalgam removal is a very delicate operation as there's a risk of mercury poisoning hence no more than 2 amalgams should be removed at a time. I've also read some sort of plastic cup should be placed in the mouth to avoid mercury droplets to leak in the saliva.
On the controversy of dental amalgam toxicity, the state of the science of the safety of dental amalgam is said to be clear in that the best scientific evidence supports the safety of dental amalgam. Clinical studies have not established an occasional connection between dental amalgam and adverse health effects in the general population; patients who have questions about the potential relation between mercury and degenerative diseases can be assured that the available evidence shows no connection
(There's the same level of mercury posioning in amalgam as there is in chloride posioning in salt.)
And there won't be any liquid mercury left in the filling anyway, as it has been amalgamated!
Dentists will and do prey on your fears of mercury to get you to invest money in new fillings.... good business for them
But back to your original question: an hour to remove and reseal 4 fillings is fine. But if you want him to work slower, by all means tell him to do so
I should have mentioned I'm talking about silver amalgams which are now banned in several European countries and will be in the whole of Europe in a few years.
It's actually my doctor and endocrinologist who recommended I remove them after running some tests which showed very high levels of mercury and other heavy metals in my body. They both told me this poisoning is coming from the amalgams.
I've done lots of research and silver amalgams do leak mercury (mercury is underneath the silver alloy) after a decade or two of chewing and being exposed to hot drinks. You can also inhale mercury vapours too. Scary!
I had this done in the states before moving to Europe. I had about 6-8 fillings removed and replaced in two visits. as I recall each visit was less than 1 hour. It really wasn't a big deal.
Banned in 3 countries (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) and only in one of those (Sweden) because of any potential human health issue - the others becuase of general environmental reasons. I am not aware of any plans from other EU countries.
The mercury is not "underneath" the silver alloy, it is bound in with it and only miniscule amounts get released. Studies basically agree this is not at a hazardous level except perhaps a very small number of people with allergic or hypersensitivity issue to mercury.
Were those tests things like Kinesiology or EAV (Electro-Accupuncture according to Dr. Voll)? I thought so.
You were on the Internet, weren't you? Cute.
Listen. Eating one single little can of tuna gives your body more mercury than 100 large amalgam fillings in the course of 50 years. Since no human mouth can take more than about 25 such large fillings, you'd have to wear them for about 200 years to equal one serving of tuna.
If I really had 25 sufficiently large fillings, I would start worrying about my oral hygiene and eating habits, not about amalgam replacement.
By the way, I was there when the Dental School at the University of Zurich did mercury vapor tests in their all rooms. By far the highest levels weren't spotted where amalgam got removed but around the ash trays in certain staff rooms.
Thanks for your views, I still prefer to listen to the 3 specialists I recently saw -a generalist doctor, my endocrinologist and her chef.
The Eu is set to impose a Europe-wide ban on mercury amalgams fillings by 2018, if the law is set is another thing, we'll see but the fact that those amalgams fillings are banned in several European countries is enough for me to believe there is a health risk.
And for the research yes I obviously looked on the net but more importantly listened to my doctors opinions.
You might want to verify how many visits he thinks are required. When I had some done, it required 3 visits; once to remove, another to put in temporary fillings, and yet another to put in permanent fillings. Swiss dentists may be a little different. Don't get Switzerlanded.
Come on, magnum_p.i. - how about actually contributing to the discussion instead of issuing drive-by groans?
I've had amalgam fillings since I was a child, and sometimes they've been replaced or expanded. I'm sure there's plenty wrong with me mentally and physically but I'm also pretty sure none of it has to do with mercury leaked from my fillings.
However, all those mercury thermometers broken over the years...like the time a box of the really long, thick ones fell on the floor in science class and our teacher had us get down on our hands and knees and roll the little balls into one big ball so he could scoop it into a beaker...
I don't think anyone disagrees with that. The point that is being making is that all the research done suggests that amalgam fillings don't expose the body to very high levels of mercury. Research does not equal reading blogs and opinion pieces by people whose credentials you cannot check. Even if they write in naturalnews.com or other popular quack sites.
It's sad to observe that even highly trained doctors fall for quackery on occasions - I ditched my doctor in the UK when she started promoting homeopathy in her practice. Of course, being a doctor doesn't mean that you're anymore ethical than anyone else, so I'm fairly sure a small minority offer such things in order to make money out of the gullible. This is helped in NE Switzerland, since there is no word in German for "gullible".
I totally agree with you, being a doc doesn't mean you're anymore ethical than anyone else, this is the reason I consulted several doctors recently to hear what they had to say.
The results of the tests indicated other metals in v high levels, the only ones (with mercury) found in amalgams, this is the reason I was told to remove them. Apparently if the results had shown only v high mercury levels this would mean it comes from external sources (ie sea food or environmental exposure).
I also haven't touched sea food in ages because of its iodine content and my thyroid probs.
And I agree we can find any info on the net, many on the dangers of amalgams and some contradicting it.
Amalgam consists of Mercury, Silver, Tin and Copper (plus trace quantities of other stuff). You will find enough of each of those in your body whether you have amalgam fillings or not.
You would die without copper (and there is plenty present in the typical diet, tin you get from canned food in quantities dwarfing anything from amalgam, silver also occurs naturally in certain foods (you will also pick up a fair bit from filtered water if you sue a water filter). Sorry, but any analysis that picks up those metals in your body can certainly not attribute it to amalgam.
Mercury as mentioned earlier mainly comes from fish, particularly tuna.
Again, what is your source for this? I can't see anything. Sure certain lobbies are pushing for a ban and there is also an export ban on mercury* but no proposal I can find from the EU itself to ban amalgam fillings.
* This is connected with dumping electronics (mainly) on third world countries for "disposal" and nothing to do with amalgam
I 'm only reporting what the 3 do ctors have told m e recently , they told me the opposite, that pois oning from mercury from silver amalgams i s far greater than mercury po is oning from food or environmental exposure.
Here, from the WTO : In 1991, the World Health Organization confirmed that mercury contained in dental amalgam is the greatest source of mercury vapour in non-industrialized settings, exposing the concerned population to mercury levels significantly exceeding those set for food and for air.
So I choose to believe the docs, the World Health Organisation's reports and the European commission for wanting to impose a total ban on silver am algams in Europe by 2018
I recently got my removed. Mostly because I had plenty of very old ones that were cracked and I decided to get them all removed to get the white filling. It was partly necessary and partly esthetic.