Toxic Teeth

In my last article, we discussed the fact that fluoride is not a healthful nutrient, but rather is a toxic waste product. It’s more toxic than lead and almost as toxic as arsenic, and yet we actually add this poison to our water under the guise that it helps prevent cavities, when in reality it causes teeth to weaken and can even lead to bone cancer. This toxic waste product also shows up in most toothpastes and is promoted by most dentists, who also offer fluoride treatments. Now, I’d like to discuss another tooth-related toxin.

Since the 1800s, dentists have been using mercury, the most toxic non-radioactive substance in the world, in the so-called “silver fillings” or amalgams that they fill cavities with. These fillings are not primarily made of silver. They are, in fact, about 50 percent mercury! The second most prevalent ingredient in them is copper, which is also toxic beyond tiny amounts. The American Dental Association (ADA) claims that this mercury is stable, i.e. that it won’t leech out of the teeth, but this is an absolute lie. Many studies have shown that the mercury in silver amalgams is definitely NOT stable and with it being implanted just a few inches from your brain, and with a direct route up the tooth’s nerve, and knowing that mercury loves nervous (brain) tissue (it is widely known as a potent neurotoxin), this seems very unwise. Remember, this is the same toxic heavy metal that causes autism, tertiary syphilis, and mad hatter’s disease. It may also be behind the fact that a huge number of dentists commit suicide every year.

“Mercury amalgams are a time-released poison.”

Here’s one video showing that mercury definitely vaporizes from fillings with just slight stimulation, as in chewing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qvNf4NVZvI.

So the mercury from fillings can affect you in multiple ways. When it vaporizes, you breathe it into your lungs where it enters your bloodstream and can go anywhere. You also swallow saliva that’s laced with mercury. From your digestive tract, it can once again enter your bloodstream and go anywhere. And, as mentioned before, mercury has the ability to travel up nerves to the brain in a process known as retrograde axonal transport. It does this at the predictable rate of 30 mm(~1.2 inches)/day.

Dr. Hal Huggins is one of the world’s foremost authorities on this subject. He’s written several books, including his classic, It’s All In Your Head and has saved the lives of thousands of patients by safely removing their amalgams. He claims to have cured over 1,000 people of multiple sclerosis merely by removing their silver amalgams and other dental toxins and helping them to detoxify metals from their bodies. Many other auto-immune diseases also clear up when this is done. That’s because mercury fools your body into attacking its own tissues, thus leading to auto-immune disease. In fact, when scientists want to induce an auto-immune disease in animals in order to study these problems, they use mercury to do so! And yet, the CDC and other health authorities continue to say they don’t know what causes autism, lupus, MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) hypothyroidism, etc. Once again, this is a big, fat lie. I know the cause of these problems and so do many others. It’s heavy metals, with mercury being at the top of the list. Aluminum, arsenic, lead, copper, and cadmium are other common disease-causing metals. That means, if you still have silver fillings in your mouth, and you have any health issues (or even if you don’t), you should think seriously about having your amalgams replaced.

Replacing your amalgams is not something to take lightly, however. If you go to a dentist who’s not been trained in this area, s/he will likely just drill out the mercury, causing its toxic dust and vapors to go everywhere. During the procedure, you will be breathing in a huge amount of the toxic metal and swallowing even more. Depending on the size of the filling and your dentist’s technique, this huge exposure may amount to more mercury being absorbed during the procedure than you’ve absorbed in many years or even the entire life of the amalgam! This is exactly what happened to me a few years ago, so I’m speaking from direct experience.

As a child, I was allowed all the sugar I wanted. It was ever-present in our household. Like most kids, I also wasn’t very fond of brushing my teeth, so I ended up with lots of cavities. These cavities were all filled with the mercury/copper amalgams. As an adult, some of those fillings started to shrink (proof they’re not stable) and new cavities appeared in the cracks around the edges of the old fillings. So, my dentist (who was not trained in the safe removal of these toxins) drilled out the old stuff and replaced it with safer materials. I was glad to have several of my silver fillings replaced, but then, within a few months, my health began deteriorating.

At a seminar, while learning a new diagnostic method, I was tested by a colleague and was found to be pretty darned sick, despite feeling pretty good at the time. Partially because I didn’t feel too bad yet, partially because I had always considered myself a healthy person, and partially because the person testing me was new at the technique, at first, I didn’t trust the results. When I got back to my office that next week, I tested myself and got the exact same results my colleague had. A couple months later, I had a very experienced teacher of the technique test me. He too got the exact same results. He actually looked at me with concern and said, “You’re pretty sick, huh?” At that point, I had to admit it. I was sick.

In a short time, I began to notice that, very often, when I swallowed, there was a distinct clicking/clunking in my throat. My energy was very low, I became very depressed, and every joint in my body became inflamed with just a slight increase in activity. These things all added up to my inability to exercise much more than walking, which led to even less energy and more depression. It eventually got to where I was so exhausted at the end of the work day, that I could barely drag my tired butt up the stairs at home. Each of these problems continued to get worse over time. The clicking in my throat became so noticeable that my wife could hear it while sitting on the couch next to me, and it was becoming hard to swallow. As my job requires the nearly constant use of my arms, shoulders, and hands, I was also starting to think about the need to find other employment. My hands, in particular, had become so painful that I was resorting to all sorts of things to try to relieve the pain...all without results. It actually felt like I had stress fractures around several of my finger joints. I started thinking that at this rate, I probably wouldn’t be able to do my job for much more than another year, if that. Although I wasn’t tested, I firmly believe I was developing (or had developed) rheumatoid arthritis. I had also become hypothyroid (thus, the depression and fatigue) and nobody seemed to know what was causing the clicking in my throat. In short, I was scared.

Luckily for me, I had some idea of what the problem might be. But up until this point, all my knowledge and all my efforts at healing myself were not doing the job. During this time, I had several hair analyses performed. Each of them showed extreme (literally off the charts) copper toxicity, but little or no mercury. I knew though, that mercury often doesn’t show up on hair analysis—at least at first. (Mercury only shows up in the hair if it’s actually circulating rather than staying put in your tissues. Other testing procedures, like DMSA challenge tests, will pull mercury from the tissues, and are better at finding this problem, but they can be very dangerous for the patient, as the newly mobilized mercury may settle in even worse places in your body. For example, it could pull mercury from your liver and deposit it in your brain. For this reason, I do not recommend these tests to anyone. For the same reason, I don’t recommend I.V. chelation, at least not until late in the process of detoxing.) But I was still very suspicious of the mercury. So, I sought help from outside.

I went to a very knowledgeable doctor in my area for several months. He tested me using muscle testing and put me on a bunch of supplements, but once again, he did not find mercury as the culprit, and predictably, I did not improve under his care. Next, I travelled up to see an old friend from school who had some advanced training in Nutrition Response Testing. She checked me, again using muscle testing, and she was able to find the problem. Just as I suspected, she found mercury all over my body, but especially in my brain, prostate, and thyroid. She gave me a homeopathic remedy, an herbal formula, and some whole food concentrates.

I started taking the products right away and in a short time, all my issues started clearing up. The clicking in my throat, the pain in my hands and other joints, the depression and fatigue...all started going away. After being on the remedies and supplements for a couple months, I (being human) slacked off on my regimen and the symptoms started returning. I immediately went back on them and once again, the symptoms began disappearing. Three years later, I’m still working on this problem, and it’s possible that I’ll be detoxing forever, but that’s not how it has to be.

For my remaining mercury fillings, I went to a biological/holistic dentist. He had special tools that allow for the safe removal of mercury fillings. I’ve now had all the metal removed from my mouth and my health is returning more every day. I wish I had had the temerity to seek this doctor’s help in the first place, but I didn’t, and I’ve learned a hard lesson that I hope to pass on to you. I hope you’ll pass it on to others as well. Mercury is NOT something to mess around with. It can literally kill you and this poison should never have been allowed by the ADA or FDA to be permanently implanted into people’s heads just inches from their brains. I actually witnessed as mercury and other heavy metals slowly killed my friend and colleague Dr. David Nilmeier. Right now, I have a patient who is dying from the same problem Dr. David had. His mouth is literally filled with mercury amalgams, which has led to a diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). I see mercury and other metals robbing the health of my patients practically every day. It is one of the biggest healthcare issues we face in today’s world. In fact, I would say that heavy metals, in general, are the most common cause of chronic health issues that I see.

If you have any of these toxic fillings in your teeth, please, please, please don’t have them removed by your dentist unless s/he has special training and the right tools for the job. My holistic dentist used a special instrument that vibrated the filling until it fell apart. Then he simply removed the fillings in a couple large chunks...much better than vaporizing the whole thing or turning it into metallic dust. Another method used by holistic dentists is to shield the surrounding area with a big rubber dam, and to have you breathing fresh air/oxygen through a tube. This is the more common method, though it may not be the best.

There are many substances that are safer than mercury amalgams to fill teeth with. Indeed almost anything would be safer. Common ingredients used in holistic dental offices include porcelain, plastic, glass, a composite resin, or some combination of these.

After amalgam removal and replacement, you’ll want to work on detoxing your body. Again, this is best left to the experts and is far too much to go into here. If you want much more information on this very important topic, please read one of Hal Huggins’s books (available on Amazon.com).

The internet is a great tool to help you find a holistic/biological dentist in your area. This is a hugely important step, so please do not blow it off like I did. Other than this issue, I was a very healthy person when I allowed my regular dentist to drill out my fillings. I think this one mistake could very well have killed me, just like it did my old friend, if I hadn’t found the right homeopathic and herbal remedies to help me get better. If I couldn’t handle the massive exposure to the mercury dust and fumes, I don’t suggest you try it. Stoicism is no protection from the toxic effects of this killer. So, do your research, find your doctor, and get the toxins out of your mouth!

This could very well be the missing piece to your healthcare puzzle. Good luck!