Mercury and Other Toxic Metals

For over a hundred years amalgam fillings have been the most com­monly placed dental fillings. Amalgam fillings, known to much of the public as silver fillings, contain approximately 50 percent ele­mental mercury when they are initially placed. As I noted in chap-

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ter 2, mercury is the most toxic of the nonradioactive heavy metals. When a small amount of mercury is spilled today from a broken thermometer at an elementary school, the school is immediately closed for several days while hazardous material experts clean the area. Unfortunately, no one seems to treat the mouths of millions of people with the same regard as they show to the floor on which that drop of mercury fell.

Both in the finished amalgam and in its uncombined elemental state, mercury will continually produce mercury vapor. In the mouth, this vapor can be directly inhaled. Eggleston and Nylander found that vapor from only five amalgam fillings could increase brain mercury levels threefold over controls.¹ This mercury vapor can also be quickly converted to organic forms or inorganic salts in the mouth. And since swallowing is as continual an activity as breathing, the gastrointestinal tract gets a continual exposure to a variety of different mercury compounds.

As I also mentioned earlier, this ongoing assault from dental mercury promotes a wide variety of gut disorders. This means that the toxins originating in the mouth can harm the body not only by the direct toxic tissue effects and the toxic effects on the immune system mentioned earlier in this chapter, they also often have dra­matic effects on the ability to properly digest. When you don't prop­erly digest your food, you have even fewer good building blocks available to properly construct new proteins that neutralize toxicity. Furthermore, you end up producing even more toxins directly from the gut due to the poorly digested food and the proliferation of anaerobic bacteria and their exceptionally potent toxins. Mercury and the other dental toxins can effectively multiply their own more direct toxic effects to a substantial degree by their interference with proper digestive activity.

Aside from having a toxic effect on the gut, mercury is notorious for producing a wide variety of symptoms, some quite subtle. You may not be the hypochondriac that your doctors think you are.

164 Optimal Nutrition for Optimal Health

Low-dose chronic mercury poisoning (micromercurialism), which can be caused by a mouthful of amalgams, can cause irritability, depression, insomnia, nervousness, mild tremor, impaired judg­ment and coordination, decreased ability to think clearly, emotional instability, headache, fatigue, and loss of sex drive. And any of these symptoms, once initiated by mercury toxicity, can become pro­foundly worse when the immune system is further stressed by any additional sources of toxicity. These symptoms are so common that many people accept them as part of life, or as just part of growing older. This is not surprising, since nearly the entire population of the United States has amalgam fillings.

Although mercury is the predominant toxin in the amalgam fill­ing, it should also be remembered that these fillings will usually also contain variable amounts of silver, copper, tin, and zinc. Many metals that are of benefit to the body in the form of an organic or in­organic salt can be highly toxic in their chemically unbound and el­emental forms. Copper would be an especially good example of this. Among other effects, copper excess can promote a pro-oxidant state in the body which produces excessive amounts of free radicals.

Amalgams are relatively inexpensive fillings, and their mechani­cal properties make them durable and relatively easy to place for the dentist. Unfortunately, the field of dentistry has rarely ever con­cerned itself with the toxicologic study of the materials it uses and promotes. As long as the mechanical properties of a filling are de­sirable, little or no thought is given or has ever been given to the toxic effects of any of the filling components.

Nickel is another metal commonly used in dentistry that is highly toxic. Nickel has already been identified as a cancer-causing agent. Sunderman published a review on the many different ways in which nickel can induce cancer.² Of significant interest, then, is that stainless steel is typically a nickel alloy. This means that the multi­ple usages of stainless steel in the mouth can result in a chronic nickel exposure. Partial dentures often contain some stainless steel.

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Crowns, or caps, often contain nickel in the bases that adhere to the tooth stumps. The stainless steel braces that have been placed in the mouths of so many of our youngsters can also be expected to offer a chronic nickel exposure. Any cursory review of nickel on MED-LINE will reveal numerous studies on the various toxic effects and cancer-causing properties of nickel. Yet most dentists and medical doctors still seem unconcerned about permanently inserting this metal inside the human body. One may well wonder if any study could be dramatic enough to make this practice stop. Do you really want your child to have nickel braces inside the mouth for several years? Unless you protest to your orthodontist, that is exactly what will happen, at least for the time being.

Certain chemicals in some replacement fillings can be just as bad for your health as amalgam fillings. Composite, nonmetal fillings are numerous in number and very diverse in content. At least up until now, modern dental technology has focused almost exclu­sively on the final physical and mechanical properties of the com­posite filling. It seems as if the toxic properties of the individual chemicals in a dental product are deemed irrelevant as long as the final product is easy to handle and install. When getting amalgams and other fillings replaced, consider using a specialized blood test to see which filling materials are least reactive with your immune system (see Appendix П).