Shelley: Ok. What are bullets made out of? Whatever they are made out of, I just bit one and made an appointment to go to a holistic environmental type dentist. My doctor’ s dentist, no less— in Philadelphia. Why am I telling you all this? Because I feel compelled to share this, because I’m scared (really scared) and also because in our search for answers I will report what she has to say, to me and in general. It’ s a consultation visit. An hour or so. Thursday at 1:30 EST… See how scared?
Michele: Are you going to investigate getting your fillings replaced with non-mercury? If so, here are a couple of questions to ask. What will be done to protect you from exposure to the mercury vapor when drilling? (mask over face, oxygen?) What about mercury debris (will a tent thing be used and lots of suction?) What about order of removal? Hal Huggins in his book It’s All In Your Head says this is important. And what about minimizing side effects from the mercury that is stirred up in your system even with precautions? I had IV EDTA chelation immediately after and I still had severe depression for one day. My dentist recommended that a patient not be alone for 24 hours after removal in case depression hit strongly. I survived it and so will you!
MaryLou: Good luck on your consultation, Shelley. I had one filling replaced yesterday. The tooth had a gold crown and a deep mercury filling. My alternative dentist removed the crown, took out all of mercury filling and put in porcelain and a temporary porcelain crown. It looks so nice and natural. I had absolutely no problems at all. Two weeks before removal, my dentist had me start taking lots of vitamin C. Plus twice a day, he had me take chlorella capsules, garlic capsules, and two capsules of free radical quenchers. After the removal, he increased the supplements to two chlorella caps twice daily along with two garlic caps twice daily taken at the same time 1/2 hour after meals, morning and night. He also gave me homeopathic drops (rescue remedy) before and after the procedure. Then he gave me a lot of Arnica homeopathic granules when he was finished. Every hour I was to take the Arnica to help the muscles in the jaw heal, etc.
Marilyn in Seattle: By the time I went to see my mercury free dentist, I just wanted to get the poison out of my mouth. My teeth were in such bad shape that I wasn’ t sure if they were salvageable— I thought most of them would have to get yanked. Part of me still wants the rest of them pulled, but I will put that off for a few years I guess. If I had had to go to dentures, it would have been okay in my mind because my teeth have been a constant source of pain/expense and all round “ head ache” for years.
Just make sure you trust this new dentist, that he can answer all your questions and knows what he is doing. You have so many root canals. See if he agrees to their inherent problems. See if your new dentist seems knowledgeable on immune functions/stresses and the candida/mercury link. I truly lucked out with the dentist I went to. I love that guy and he was so skilled. When he extracted my root canal and cleaned out the site with the 8 burr drill, I had NO pain, not even a twinge— same with the dead tooth I had him pull. My dentist knew kinesiology and did muscle testing to see if I was right about the tooth being dead— it didn’ t show any problems on x-ray. But that sucker came out with one little tug. I KNEW it was dead.
I truly believe that teeth can be a big source of ill health. My bite is way off and I’m wondering about that too. So I wasn’ t scared before I went to the dentist, just hopeful that maybe at long last I had figured out what my problems were. My gums healed up halfway through amalgam removal. They are HARD now. They no longer bleed no matter how hard I brush. I went through YEARS of periodontal work. This ticks me off, I tell you, how they kept blaming my sore gums on my supposed lack of hygiene. I flossed 3 times a day and when I did, my gums would bleed. I couldn’ t believe it when HALFWAY through the amalgam removal, the texture of my gums transformed. They started to hug my teeth.
I have a cavitation repair in July, but I no longer fear dentist visits with my wonderful dentist. I think he’ s wonderful and very, very knowledgeable. Just make sure you feel a very high level of comfort and if not, look around for someone else. I interviewed 4 mercury-free dentists on the phone, and I just knew when I spoke to this guy that he was the one.
I am so glad I did this— got that crap out of my mouth. I went into it with the attitude that it couldn’ t hurt, getting the mercury out of my mouth and now I feel like I’ ve won the lottery, because I KNOW that this was the nemesis that caused my downfall. I was POISONED. You probably are too from your symptoms, so go talk to this guy and see what he says and how up-todate he is.
Three weeks later –Shelley: I went to the dentist last week. I have been putting off writing about it because it was a lot of information. It became quite apparent that the stuff in my mouth other than teeth (root canals, amalgams, the like) are not doing me much good. So read on for part two. I think I’ ve read and digested (ugh) enough now to write this pretty clearly. The dentist was a “ holistic” dentist. Her card reads “ biological dentist,” an interesting combination of terms. The week before (like a soap!) she took a history. We had an amazingly enlightened nutrition conversation. Also, the technician took x-rays— full mouth digital.
This week she did a full mouth exam … pointing out everything for the technician that was charting all the potential problems. One tooth that had a root canal is dead with a junk metal cap. That is to be extracted (if I go through with this). Another that is a broken mess is still alive— I guess that’ s cool. She went over all the teeth, found three or four mercury “ tattoos” (ick).
She did a test to determine the electrical compatibility of the metals in my mouth. (Think energy systems, and acupuncture meridians). She took a bacteriological slide from my gums. (More on that in a minute.) They took pictures of my teeth using a digital video camera hooked to a computer monitor. What a mess to see the inside of my mouth. I tried not to freak.
Before I left I was given the Ziff/Ziff (Zamm) Dentistry without Mercury book. And she asked me to look at the book It’s All in Your Head by Huggins, DDS. I watched two videos— one by Huggins and one later by Roger Eichman, DDS, and I learned a lot.
I learned that mercury poisoning is high in the goldsmith trade, I learned that a lot of substances contain mercury that I hadn’ t dreamed of, and I learned how the breath test for mercury works. All the time I was chewing this piece of gum so they could use this machine to measure the mercury fumes in my mouth (there were plenty).
She (the dentist) told me that it would take about 90 minutes for me to feel ok from chewing the gum. Boy, was she right. I lost a *ton* of short term memory. The really really short term stuff. Like the stuff you never think about. Example: “ I need to get my keys out of my pocket so I can open the car door”— hardly a thought— next “What was it that I wanted to do?” This was markedly obvious and like nothing I have ever experienced before…and it took about 24 hours to fully subside. Extremely weird.
Eichman talked about what mercury binds to— sulfur, protein in the spinal cord, or in the connective tissue, to enzymes like thyroxine (T4 thyroid) which helps run a person’ s energy system, and to stuff like CoQ10. He also said it lowers the immune system (specifically T4 and T8 cells) in a similar manner to HIV. His recommendations for removal are to first remove all mercury in the mouth. Then chelate with DMPS. He is on the side that says that DMPS does not cross the blood/brain barrier. The second thing is to chelate out of the brain with Vitamin C IV drips. I will have to watch the video again. What I wrote in my notes was that the C drip and glutamine reduce mercury in the brain and frees it for DMPS removal. I’ ll learn more when I see my treatment plan. Mercury interferes with old protein removal in the brain. So garbage stays stuck in the brain. Not good. After the mercury is out of the brain he mentioned something about a Neuro Growth Product, which he said held promise for reversing brain injury. He talked a lot about Alzheimer’ s and getting the protosome to refunction. I was lost at this point.