Any benefit of removing mercury teeth fillings?

[GeorgeGlass]

Any benefit for advanced prostate cancer patients to have their old teeth filling removed and replaced with "non-toxic" fillings?

George

[pjoshea13]

One of the PCa groups I joined 14 years ago was run by a man who offered dubious advice on the importance of detoxing the body. Removing mercury fillings was one of his obsessions. I never heard anyone say that it helped, but there were a few bitter guys who had been expecting to see tangible results after spending a small fortune at the dentist.

My feeling is that there is a lack of scientific theory to support removal, and that the procedures themselves can only be disruptive to the body.

-Patrick

[cesanon]

I have often wondered about those fillings. But they have been around for a long time and no one seems to have linked anything to them.

[Mathes72]

Do not do it,a friend had it done an got thyroid cancer,she died,like opening a can of worms

[rocket09]

I did all of mine and my sinus problem disappeared and I feel better. The mercury is toxic. Whether or not it affects cancer it has to affect something as it does leach into your system. How much is your health worth?

[sb444444 in reply to rocket09]

Hi,

How long did it take for your sinus problems to dissapear?

[rocket09 in reply to sb444444]

I think it may have been a month or two. It was awhile back.

[sb444444 in reply to rocket09]

Thanks for your reply, did you have to go on any special diet? And did you detox the mercury?

[rocket09 in reply to sb444444]

No but I eat lots of berries which do the job.

[sb444444 in reply to rocket09]

Thanks for your help, last question was you suffering with post nasal drip?

[rocket09 in reply to sb444444]

Yes and I still do occasionally.

[dockam]

Hey, I'm 34 years practicing as a general dentist. There is no medical reason to remove and replace amalgam fills. The mercury is bound with the copper, silver and other elements to form the amalagamation - the filling. It won't leak into your nervous system.

Placing composites requiring trauma to the tooth with the drilling, acid etching and bonding with a light cured composite. These are not as strong and more likely to fracture under pressure - this could allow redecay of the tooth.

Save your time, money, tooth structure - don't do it.

Randy

[bjorner3 in reply to dockam]

Hi Randy - I have been practicing for almost 40 years and I agree with your comment that there isn't any medical reason to remove existing sound amalgam fillings. However from what I have read years ago not all components in an amalgam are bound. Some are unbound. One substance is Mercury. Further as tin is oxidized and essentially goes away (tin can rusting in a lake etc) that process frees up the ingredients of an amalgam to become bound and the filling gets a secondary set expansion. We put alloy in "dry" to avoid set expansion while this secondary set expansion is in a wet field, the mouth. It is what makes the filling appear to be growing out of the tooth. This secondary expansion creates lots of fracture lines in enamel and lots of broken teeth leading to crowns and possible root canals as well as extractions of non restorable teeth. I haven't placed amalgam for 20 plus years. Prepping a tooth for an amalgam filling weakens the tooth due to necessary retentive undercuts. I can do a more conservative prep with no under cutting to weaken the tooth when I place composite with dentinal bonding ( as you know bond strengths higher than natural dentin to enamel bond strengths.) I have some patients with class II posterior composites - the old 3M p10 material placed in 1986! Back in the day of no dentinal bonding . These fillings are not ditched out like we expect to see with an amalgam and are still very serviceable and successful fillings. I am surprised by their longevity. I feel I don't need go jump into the Mercury filling debates - WHO calling for an amalgam ban, our own ADA and FDA recommending no amalgams for pregnant women or children due to possible health issues but then calling amalgams a safe material for other patients ( if not safe for a pregnant woman why would I want it in mine??) the EPA calling amalgam scrap a toxic material. And so it goes. The rest of the world is slowly banning amalgam but for US patients it is "safe" until we throw it away and it becomes magically toxic.

Yours in dentistry,

David

[PhilipSZacarias]

Hello George, I reviewed the literature and could not find a good/definitive reason for removing them. I was not suffering from any of the classical symptoms of mercury poisoning, although some people may have more difficulty removing/excreting mercury due to difference in their genetic make up (detoxification system). If you are going to remove them then, find a dentist who has removed fillings before and follows a standardized protocol, for example: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?te.... If not done properly, then there could be exposure to mercury. I have to say in the end, I had them removed primarily because of family pressure. And after removal of the amalgams, I did not notice any change in my well being. Cheers, Phil

[PhilipSZacarias]

Hello George, one more point. Do not remove the amalgams if any of your filing are deep and you are going to be exposed to chemotherapy, or your MO is contemplating administering zoledronic acid or denosumab - these can lead to osteonecrosis of the jaw. It may be too risky to due dental work due to the risk of infections and a surpressed immune response. Phil

[herb1]

I researched this years ago. There is no proof that it has an effect, even though testing might show elevated levels of mercury vapor in the mouth; it's just not high enough to matter apparently. Those of us who have lost all our teeth/all our fillings should have seen benefits? We haven't!

[j-o-h-n]

I use mine as a weather thermometer...

Good Luck and Good Health.

j-o-h-n Tuesday 07/03/2018 12:19 PM EDT

** Happy Birthday American - Keep our service personnel safe **

[Hidden]

I'm guessing we are ingesting more mercury from our food, like fish. Don't see the benefit at all.

[FCoffey]

I had them out after testing showed abnormally high levels of mercury in my blood. There was nothing in my living or working environment to explain it. Further testing shows that I have genetic makeup that significantly reduces my ability to excrete heavy metals.

Two years after the filings were removed my mercury levels were significantly reduced.

The dentist who did them had suffered from mercury poisoning, figured out the problem after getting no help from multiple MDs. He follows a very careful protocol to protect both patient and staff from mercury. Done carelessly it can indeed cause problems.

He showed me the mercury from a few of my fillings and explained that he would be paying a hefty toxic waste disposal fee to get rid of it. But he could have mixed up a fresh batch of the exact same compound and put it in my mouth, and the ADA would be just fine with that.

It is beyond dispute that mercury in any form is poisonous, with mercury toxicity most commonly affecting the neurologic, gastrointestinal and renal organ systems. Mercury also incapacitates key enzymes involved in the cellular stress response, protein repair, and oxidative damage prevention. Disruption to these mechanisms are associated with multiple cancers.

Poisoning can result from mercury vapor inhalation, mercury ingestion, mercury injection, and absorption of mercury through the skin. Dental mercury amalgams expose patients to mercury vapor and mercury ingestion. Bacteria normally present in the human mouth can methylate elemental mercury in amalgams to a form that is readily absorbed by the body.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty proposed in 2013 to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. The major highlights of the convention include a ban on new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, control measures on air emissions, and the international regulation of the informal sector for artisanal and small-scale gold mining.

Essentially all of the studies claiming to show no deleterious effects of mercury amalgams are based upon neuropsychological tests. Just because you can't measure the effects of mercury on child development or cognition does NOT prove that mercury is not affecting the immune system or degrading biochemical pathways in ways that are known to encourage the promotion of cancer.

Whether or not to remove mercury requires a careful balancing of risks and potential rewards. But it would be extremely foolish to allow the introduction of new mercury into any human's body, especially in patients with advanced prostate cancer.

[PhilipSZacarias]

A very good synopsis. I had not considered effects in systems other than the neurophysiological.

[GeorgeGlass]

I just want to thank everyone for your replies. Some of your replies were very thoughtful and in depth. I really appreciate your facts and insights!!!!!!

George