Open Letter from a Poisoned Dentist (she's not happy)

Personal Story of a Mercury Poisoned Dentist

My name is Dr. Andrea Brockman. I practiced dentistry for almost 25 years in Philadelphia, PA. I got my undergraduate degree in Nursing and practiced for 6 years in medical-surgical, intensive care and geriatrics. When working in hospitals, we were prohibited from entering a room where there were mercury spills from sphygmomanometers or thermometers. Until the room was properly cleaned by specialized and protected people, the room was considered a hazardous site.

It was quite confusing to me to be in dental school and be in a student clinic of 300 dentists placing amalgams, spilling more mercury on the floor than 300 thermometers. My questions to instructors of why we were handling such a poisonous substance evoked anger and the same stock answer, "It gets locked into the filling and becomes inert." Well, even if that were true, it still made no sense to me at all that the dentists were squashing the excess mercury out of the Amalgam in squeeze cloths and burning the caked on Amalgam from condensing instruments. In those days, we didn't wear gloves or masks.

I never put two and two together that when I started working in the clinic that I ended up in the hospital with heart arrhythmias, started getting panic attacks, migraine headaches and later that year a miscarriage. I was a previously healthy 25 year old and attributed my new problems to the stress of being in dental school.

Composite resins were just coming out for anterior teeth and were not strong enough for posterior teeth. Our materials were limited to Amalgams or gold foils for direct restorations. We were taught to place pins in teeth for larger restorations and polish Amalgams for greater longevity. Each time we placed, polished and drilled out old amalgams, the dentist and everyone else in the room was exposed to mercury vapor. I couldn't tell you how many micrograms of mercury were coming out of fillings, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that dental personnel are being exposed to dangerous amounts.

Every business that uses mercury has specific procedures coming down from OSHA for protection of employees and the EPA for protection of the environment. There have never been any guidelines for protection of dental workers nor for the protection of the water where tons of mercury from excess Amalgam from newly placed fillings and drilled out fillings go into the suction system directly into the water. I've heard the statistics that 60% of the mercury at the water treatment plants is coming from dental offices.

In the earlier years of my practice when I was pregnant and placing and removing Amalgams without any masks or gloves, I became very concerned that I was now also exposing my unborn child to mercury vapor. There was nothing I could find in the literature (there was no internet then) that gave me any statistics on fetal exposure to mercury vapor in dental personnel. I thought that if anyone had that information, it would certainly be the American Dental Association. I believed that their interests would be to protect its members.

I called the ADA and spoke with several scientists and respectfully acknowledged their position that mercury gets locked into the filling. My question to them was, "I'm a female dentist and I'm pregnant. I've already had one miscarriage and it has taken me several years to become pregnant again. I drill out hundreds of amalgams a week. Could you tell me what my exposure is to the mercury vapor created by the aerosol of drilling? And how is this affecting my baby?" The answer I got was, "I'll get back to you." That was 25 years ago and I'm still waiting.

I had a difficult delivery and had a son that was hyperactive, asthmatic, a bet wetter, suffers from chronic sinus and digestive problems, periods of depression, difficulty focusing and impulsive behavior. The gamut of doctors treated his symptoms but the problems were never corrected. It was not until he was in his late teens that I had him tested for mercury. Provoked urine challenge test showed that he was loaded with mercury and there was no other possible place he could have been exposed other than from me in utero or through my breast milk.

I was also tested and showed large amounts of mercury on provoked urine challenge tests. The Science that the ADA produces has not definitively proven that the mercury in amalgam is not linked to any illness. They continue to espouse that the amount that escapes from the filling is so minute that it is insignificant.

Cigarettes are a contributing factor in lung cancer and heart disease, but are not the total cause. There are always other factors. Cigarettes do, however, present a risk and should be avoided for optimum health. That doesn't mean that a person who gives up smoking or who doesn't smoke will never get sick. In the case of amalgams, it is prudent never to have them placed in the first place. In the case of a healthy person, if removed safely (precautions should be taken like asbestos removal), it is a positive health choice. If a person's health is already compromised, it is very important to have mercury amalgams removed, but only if proper precautions and strict protocols are followed. Otherwise, the person can be exposed to more mercury and can deteriorate.

As far as dental personnel are concerned, they need to wake up and start doing their own research and not taking the word of the ADA that there is no scientific proof that amalgam is dangerous. Every dentist should obtain the government's "Toxicological Profile of Mercury" available from the Department of Commerce through the Freedom of Information Act.

We should demand tests for ourselves and our employees and gather true health statistics. Dentists are at risk and putting their families at risk. Even if amalgams are deemed safe, dentists are putting their patients at risk from placing and drilling out fillings. Hygienists are risking exposure for themselves and their patients from polishing amalgams. The amount of vapor released from the heat of friction of a prophy cup can be measured with a Jerome Mercury Vapor Analyzer. Dentists are putting people, animals, and fish, if not the entire food chain at risk by not separating out the mercury in the suction system before it leaves the office and goes into the water supply.

Forget the debate that amalgams are dangerous for patients. I believe that if dentists are not protecting themselves they are hiding their heads in the sand. Irritability is one of the symptoms of mercury toxicity. Perhaps the anger expressed by the dentists over this issue is not only a need to defend a long trusted belief, but a reaction triggered by the mercury in their own systems.

Andrea H. Brockman, DDS
President, OraMedica International, LLC

http://www.oramedica.com


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