Re: Thinks n' thoughts...Re: Dental Fillings Removal

Uny is right, all amalgam fillings are not created equal, not if you got them in the 70's anyway.

I always thought I would go into my parents business after I finished school but somewhere along the way I decided I might want to go into the dental field.  My high school had a program for those of us who qualified during our senior year called 4/0 which meant we only had to attend school from 8-12.  I qualified because I had enough credits so I attended a trade school in the afternoon to become a dental assistant.  I thought if I enjoyed it I would pursue it to a higher level.  Well, I didn't last long lol.  Once I got out of school I went to work for a dentist. it was my job to take x-rays, give injections, mix the fillings and then assist the dentist during the procedure.  

In school they didn't teach about the danger of the mercury, the emphasis was put on the danger of exposure to the x-rays.  I had to take a state exam and get certified to even take x-rays.  You would have thought we should have had to take a state exam on how to mix the mercury and get certified on that but we didn't and I didn't know any better at the time.  When I mixed the alloy powder with the mercury I filled the mixing container with the materials by hand and put it into the mixing machine.  Then I took it and filled the tool the dentist used to place it in the tooth.  I lasted all of about 2-3 months at that career because in that short time frame the mercury ate through the ring on my right hand several times without my ever touching the mercury!  That gave me a clue that I didn't want to be messing with that stuff.  It was the vapors coming off the mercury that ate through my ring and I mean ate all the gold on the bottom side of the ring so that I had to keep taking it to a jeweler and get the gold replaced!

I don't know what the procedure for mixing the amalgam is nowadays, my time was in the 70's so I'm sure they've got it pre-mixed by now but I do know that during my time in the industry the alloy powders and the dentists mixing preference varied widely.  The powdered alloy is a mixture of metallic substances that have been ground up and is mixed with the mercury to make the amalgam filing.  The size of the particle the alloy was ground into would vary and how each dentist wanted it mixed would vary.  I was taught a basic mixture in school and told that each dentist would choose the measurement of the alloy to the mercury so that tells me that its different in every dentist office.  

I never had an amalgam filling so I don't have to worry about it but if I did have some and I had no symptoms of mercury poisoning you can bet I'd leave them right where they were.  Removing amalgams from your mouth when you aren't suffering from any symptoms is just asking for trouble in my opinion.  I would only get them removed when and if I had exhausted all natural means of getting well and had done an extreme amount of research into the safest possible way to get them removed by the top person in the field who had lots of documented experience and a track record of clean removal, meaning not exposing the patient to the mercury while removing them.

I'm also not open to debate on this issue, I realize this is a hot topic, as it should be and everyone is entitled to their own opinion on the matter. This is just one more example of how we have been conditioned to believe something isn't toxic when nothing could be further from the truth. 

Blessings,

Willow