BLOG: What to Do About Mercury-Contained Silver Fillings

Whether online, since I am on expert panels of many websites that help consumers with their health questions, or in  lecture and seminars that I present or on a daily basis in my office, I am approached by many, and I am often asked about my opinion regarding silver fillings and the possible danger of their mercury content.

I do not believe that my opinion is important. As an expert and a doctor, I only have the duty to present the facts, inform, educate and then the patient should form their own opinion about it.  

If you are pro Amalgam (mercury-contained silver filling) then you can find study after study for the support of your position, and if you are against it, you still can find studies and documentation proving that, too. So, I do not care about studies when it comes to this subject matter.

After all, a drug can be researched, studied, passed by FDA with complete success and great reputation and two years down the road they take the same drug off the shelf, calling it unsafe. Then the attorneys find clients to file a class-action lawsuit against the doctors who prescribed them (which is by itself a subject to blog about!).

So I am simply going to present a few facts and inform and educate you about Amalgam fillings. It is up to you to form your opinion and decide what to do. 

Fact No. 1:

Mercury (as in a thermometer) expands and contracts with change in temperature, every time you consume anything hot or cold. This amalgam filling is sitting in a tooth that resembles glass or china. This chunk of metal then expands and contracts within this brittle tooth. So what do you think it will do to the tooth surrounding this material? That’s right, it will cause fractures. Fractures can break the tooth. How many of you have had a crown because your tooth broke but the filling was still intact?! Fractures also will leak, allowing bacteria to penetrate within, causing decay (cavities). The photos I have posted to this blog clearly show what we see when we remove the amalgam.

Fact No. 2: 

Metals block the penetration of X-ray. So, if your doctor takes an X-ray of your tooth, she/he will not be able to detect cavities, especially in their early stages.

Fact No. 3:

Metal does not belong in a wet environment, period. It causes discoloration, oxidization, expansion, corrosion.

Fact No. 4: The most important one: a “No Brainer"

By law (OSHA), dentists are required to collect and gather all scraps of amalgam whether new or new and place them in a ‘hazard holding container,” and the dentists have to hire companies that collect HAZARDOUS WASTE to come and dispose of them. We, as dentists are not allowed to dump the amalgam scraps in regular waste, nor we can push it down the sink in the drain to end up in our waters. So, if you ask the dental society, the state Legislature and the insurance companies, a material that OSHA does not allow to get into our water drain and regular waste to end up on our soil is “OK” to be placed in our mouths.

Now the question then arises, why do dentist still place them in patients' teeth? It’s simple. Profit.

Amalgam is very cheap to purchase, and it takes very little time to place and therefore the profit margin is much higher for a dentist in comparison with white fillings or porcelain inlays and inlays. It also takes very little training and talent to place an amalgam filling. In some states dentist prep the tooth and the assistants can place them!

Furthermore, the insurance companies never deny the payment for amalgam, but they always deny porcelain and almost always downgrade the payment to the amalgam fee and the patient has to pay more co-pay. This brings extra work and effort both in terms of insurance billing and in terms of collecting larger amount of co-pay from patients.

To make this blog more controversial and interesting, when the amalgam fails, you almost always have to get a root canal or at the minimum a crown. This is revenue of $1,000-$2,000 per tooth for the doctor. However, if a composite white filling fails, since it can be detected early on, it can be replaced time after time. This does not bring much revenue. White fillings can be repaired without having to remove all of it, and it can be “patched up." You can repair, add and place a larger amount since it is more tissue compatible and less destructive.  

Now, my personal experience, which necessarily is not what I want you to base your decision onm is as follows: I have had patients who have experienced relief or improvements with headaches, fibromyalgia, sinus problems, allergies, fatigue, nervous disorders, TMJ disorders, and numerous other conditions. Oncologists send their cancer patients to me to remove amalgam. I recently had a chiropractor who professed better breathing the same day he had his silver fillings removed. 

I am not by any means saying this can happen to all of us or that you go to your dentist tomorrow and remove all metal out of you mouth. My recommendation would not to do it unless you have some sort of special conditions, like cancer, allergies, nervous issues, etc. Do have “a plan of action” to replace those fillings a few at a time. Budget yourself, use your insurance benefits and gradually get rid of all metal in your mouth.  

So my friends, it is up to you what to decide. It is your mouth, your money, your time, and your health. Do the best you can to take care of the temporary temple we have been given to hold our soul.