Quinta_Essentia wrote: "i would not have even mentioned Amalgam illness to her. make up a better story. tell her some fiction, doesn't matter. these people are both in total and complete denial, and the underlying fear here is that dentists could be liable to be sued. so the entire industry is in serious denial. you will get nowhere with this.

the records are yours. they aren't top secret military intelligence. call her back and demand the records. be polite, but insistent. dont take no for an answer. you have EVERY right to those records.

who knows maybe she is just lazy and doesn't feel like digging them up? stand up for yourself here. \

of course if i were you i would just get the mercury out of my mouth. who cares when you got the mercury in? just get it out. thats my advice anyway."

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Thanks Quinta_Essentia and to everyone for the helpful replies. Your advice is well-taken. What you wrote in your post just did not occur to me - that my dentist would interpret my inquiry as a legal threat and respond accordingly. I guess I was naiive and too straightforward? I just didn't really think that I would have that much to lose by being honest - guess I didn't think things through enough (which is a general problem of mine - especially as my severe "brain fog" worsens over time).

I guess a major reason why I wasn't thinking in legal/liability terms is that it hasn't been on my mind to sue her. In my mind, I don't blame her individually for any possible Amalgam illness. From my point-of-view (at least at this time), she was just a relatively-innocent cog in the machine. (The ADA may be a different matter.) She (just like us unwitting patients) could have just been trusting the ADA's word on things - she went to school to learn the "tools of her trade", not to research the safety of amalgam. Now she may have become enlightened as to the possible dangers of Amalgam in the years since her heyday - and is protecting the ADA (as well as herself) by her current stance/actions. I guess I hold her more accountable for her words and actions during our recent phone call than for what she put into my mouth decades ago.

Besides - it might turn out that my Amalgams actually have little to nothing to do with my mental illness. So I guess my uncertainty (even before I talked to her) was another factor in my not playing "hardball" with her.

But she did say something interesting during our phone call that may have indicated where her head was at. At one point - she asked a little hesitantly, "Are you blaming ----?" She wouldn't finish her thought - as if she were afraid of asking that "loaded question" because she might have been overreacting, and/or she was dreading opening that can of worms unecessarily. But it was easy for me to finish her sentence (in my head) - I figured that she was asking, "Are you blaming me?" This prompted me to say something reassuring so that she would be clear that my intentions were not to blame her for my messed-up life - I immediately responded, "I'm not blaming YOU..." My intentions were nothing more than to get my hands on my records so I can have a complete account of what went into my mouth (and when) - to put my "medical picture" together for my own sake. But like I said, I guess I just wasn't thoughtful enough about the implications of things.

Although I would love to have my hands on those records, I'm *very* hesitant to call her back. My severe social anxiety is a factor, and I'm very leery about bringing this to a contentious level. And she knows the reason why I want the records, and her defenses will be up even more than they were before.

I know "when they were put in" doesn't matter nearly as much as getting these things out - but there is always the possibility that something is in those records that will be very significant and illuminating. I've suffered so much - and I think I deserve the chance to put together a "timeline", to try to connect the dots (if there is any connection) between an amalgam placement and onset/worsening of symptoms. Plus - I'm not sure exactly how many Amalgams are in my mouth, and I wanted to get a definite figure. I have at least eight - but at least one of them may have worn away completely (and at least one is partially worn away).

And since money/financial issues are a HUGE problem as far as getting these fillings out (I haven't been able to work because of my mental illness) - it will be a LONG time (if ever) before I can have these things removed. So I guess pursuing my records is a way of feeling like I'm doing *something* tangible about the problem (besides the actual usefulness of having these records).

#89866 said: "Imagine that - the person who poisoned you wants nothing to do with you now.

No, you need to blame her for poisoning you. And get back your records that YOU paid for. Don't bother spending money on a lawyer until she refuses to hand over your records. Put everything in writing.

Intelligent authority? Was it intelligent for your dentist to forgo all common sense and put mercury lozenges in kids mouths? Is she really an authority when she now wants no responsibility for her actions? She is just as much to blame as the ADA and she knows exactly what the mercury issue means."

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Thank you (and everyone else who replied) for the advice & perspective. Like I said in my reply to Quint_Essentia, money is a huge issue (basically non-existent - I can't work and I rely on my parents for my expenses), so hiring a lawyer appears to be out of the question. I wish I was better at keeping journals, but I did write down a summary/account of that conversation with my dentist. I may need to go back and add a new "detail" about the convo that I just remembered (and recounted in my reply to Quinta_Essentia).

And I can understand where you're coming from by feeling the need to blame the dentist - but right now at least, I don't place much individual blame on her (as explained in my reply to Quinta_Essentia). She could have been nearly as "in the dark" about the dangers of Amalgams as I was - or she could have genuinely bought into the ADA's position on Amalgams hook, line, and sinker. But I guess in this legal system - she could still be held liable - by being an "accessory to the fact"? Hmmm. The criminal justice system locks up innocent & gullible accessories to the crime all the time...