The Problem:
According to the American Dental Association's (ADA) code of ethics, a dentist who discusses the toxicity of mercury amalgams ('silver' fillings) or who advocates for their removal for health reasons may have acted unethically. Based on the ADA's position, dental boards across the nation have taken disciplinary action against dentists who oppose mercury fillings.
We should be concerned about the potential health effects of mercury amalgam ('silver') fillings. Credible research implicates a link between mercury amalgams and birth defects, stillbirths, Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosis, Parkinson's disease and a recent study led by Boyd Haley, Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky links Alzheimer's disease and amalgams. Mercury toxicity is hard to diagnose because it often takes months or years to appear after amalgam installation and some cases don't arise until after multiple fillings are installed.
We should be involved in a collaborative effort--the Consumer Dental Choice Project--to expand consumer access to mercury-free dentistry and to educate the public about the potential health implications of mercury amalgams. This effort is being implemented by Citizens, DAMS (Dental Amalgam Mercury Syndrome), NISLAPP (National Institute for Science Law and Public Policy) and IAOMT (the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology).
The Consumer Dental Choice Project aims to try to stop dental boards from punishing mercury-free dentists, work with governors to appoint mercury-free dentists to dental boards, launch a national education campaign about the dangers of mercury fillings, file anti-trust and commercial free speech challenges to the ADA's position on mercury fillings, and involve federal agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, FDA and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Background:
Amalgams are often called 'silver' fillings although their usual make-up is about 50% mercury, 30% silver and 20% other metals. Mercury is a highly toxic metal and dentists have debated the safety of amalgam fillings for over a century. Many consumers are unaware that their 'silver' fillings contain mercury and that the body absorbs mercury from these fillings with potentially severe side effects.
Amalgam is the generic term applied to a variety of very similar products used in dentistry to fill teeth. Amalgam is also known as the "silver filling" (due to its shiny appearance) or the silver-mercury filling. Amalgam literally means mixed with mercury, and in the dental sense that is true. Powdered metals and metal compounds consisting of silver, copper, tin, and zinc are mixed with about an equal weight of liquid mercury. Three different types of chemical reactions take place within this mixture, and the resultant amalgam will set at room temperature, and, most importantly, within a few minutes.
Amalgam has been used as a filling material for 160 years and has enjoyed the reputation of being an inexpensive, long lasting filling. The materials alone only cost about one dollar. Although the average life span of an amalgam filling is only around five years according to Dr. Leon Silverstone at the University of Colorado, some amalgam fillings have been known to last for up to 20 years.
Three times now, amalgam has been accused of initiating diseases. The first was in the 1830's, again in the 1920's, and the third time a movement started in 1973 in which more substantial information has been available to determine the toxicity of the substance. Up until recently, it was felt that the mercury stayed within the filling. Now it is known that mercury leaches out every minute of the day.
Governor Roy Romer has signed into law a bill to increase access of the people of the state of Colorado to mercury-free dentistry.
House Bill 97-1187 was introduced by Rep. Mark Paschall with the support of Sen. Muntzebaugh to support consumers' rights to choose safe, effective alternatives to conventional dental procedures.
This dental freedom law is the FIRST OF ITS KIND to be passed in the United States. It enables patients to choose mercury-free dentistry through dentists licensed in the state. It further assures that trained and licensed dentists can continue to practice mercury-free dentistry without fear of retribution from the Colorado Board of Dental Examiners.
This is a total reversal of Colorado Administrative Law Judge Nancy Connick's decision last year which in essence forbade dentists from removing mercury based on the decision to remove toxic substances from the mouth. She also forbade patients from requesting removal of mercury based on its toxicity.
This law, "House Bill 97-1187", Section 1., 12-35-118, Colorado Revised Statutes, 1991 Repl. Vol., is amended by the addition of a new subsection that says:
1.7) (a) NOTHING IN THIS SECTION SHALL BE CONSTRUED TO DEPRIVE ANY DENTAL PATIENT OF THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE OR REPLACE ANY PROFESSIONALLY RECOGNIZED RESTORATIVE MATERIAL, NOR TO PERMIT DISCIPLINARY ACTION AGAINST A DENTIST SOLELY FOR REMOVING OR PLACING ANY PROFESSIONALLY RECOGNIZED RESTORATIVE MATERIAL.
Citizens for Health applauds the passage of this bill and all of the individuals who worked to bring this important issue to the attention of the state legislature. "Passage of this law demonstrates that the public's increasing interest in expanded access to dental treatment options has been heard by our elected officials," stated Susan Haeger. "In the past, conventional and alternative options in dentistry have not been evaluated by the same standards of safety and efficacy prior to adopting them as accepted standard of care. I see this important law as opening up lines of communication to the consumer about risks and benefits of all treatments, and encouraging more dentists to consider adding safe alternatives to mercury amalgams into their practices."
Haeger continues in her press release that, "The use of mercury amalgam in dental fillings is a controversial issue. Individuals and organizations concerned with the potential health hazard of mercury in dental amalgams have now brought the debate to the public. Although used for over 100 years in fillings, presumably safely, mercury is a highly toxic metal that is being investigated in numerous studies as a possible cause of ailments such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. Recent research has shown a causal link between mercury amalgams and Alzheimer's disease. (Haley and Pendergrass, 1995)."
Susan Haeger is Executive Director of Citizens For Health which is an
international grassroots advocacy organization committed to protecting and
expanding consumer natural health choices. She may be reached in Boulder
Colorado at (303) 417-0772 or by Fax at (303) 417-9378
or E-Mail:
cfh@ares.csd.net
The FDA has not approved, disapproved or classified the use of amalgams, citing the need for further research. In 1989, however, the EPA did classify amalgams as a hazardous waste, mandating dentists take special precautions with the material before and after it is placed in the mouth. But EPA's classification doesn't include amalgam that is in the mouth.
Alternatives to amalgams:
Composite fillings are gaining popularity as a mercury-free alternative. However, some people have strong reactions to composite material. Before replacing any amalgam fillings, consult a dentist familiar with this issue.
What you can do:
* Contact Citizens For Health to get involved in a
Consumer Dental Choice Project in your area.
* For more information on mercury-free dentistry and
how to get referrals, contact:
Foundation for Toxic Free Dentistry at PO Box 608010,
Orlando FL 32860-8010, (send a self-addressed, $.78
stamped envelope to receive information
or DAMS at 800.311.6265, fax: 505.332.3263
Citizens For Health is a nonprofit, grassroots, consumer advocacy group that champions public policies empowering individuals to make informed health choices. We depend on your membership and donations. Without your voice, there is no choice!
Dr Hal Huggins:
Then we get into the root canal business, and that is the most tragic of all. Isn't there something you can put in the centre of the canal that is safe? Yeah, there probably is, but that is not where the problem is. The problem with a root canal is that it is dead. Lets equate that. Lets say you have got a ruptured appendix, so you go to the phone book, and who do you look up? Lets see, we have a surgeon and a taxidermist, who do you call? You going to get it bronzed? That is all we do to a dead tooth. We put a gold crown on it, looks like it has been bronzed. It doesn't really matter what you embalm the dead tooth with, it is still dead, and within that dead tooth we have bacteria, and these bacteria are not in the absence of oxygen. In the absence of oxygen most things die except bacteria.
They undergo something called a pleomorphic changeŠŠŠŠŠŠlike a mutation .. they learn to live in the absence of oxygenŠnow produce thioethers, some of the strongest poisons on the planet that are not radioactive. These get out into the body and you may notice in the medical literature of 1900 they mentioned a few heart attacks, so it wasn't a big deal in 1900, but by 1910 2% of the US population, which is a lot of folks had had heart attacks. By 1920---10% of the population had had heart attacks, and we are up to about 25% about 10 years ago, and everywhere you go you see joggers running around. Menus in the restaurant have this little heart over it because we are on low cholesterol diets ŠŠ.so what has it done. It has dropped the 25% down to around 43% . We are going in the wrong direction and root canals are going up. In 1990 we did 17 million of them. This last year we did 23 million, and the ADA hopes by the year 2000 we reach 30 million a year.
Weston Price knew this back in 1920 Š he would take a person who had had a heart attack, take out the tooth with the root canal, take a little segment of it, put it under the skin of a rabbit. We have done this with guinea pigs, and in about 10 days that rabbit would die of a heart attack. And you could take it out and put it under the skin of another rabbit, and in 10 days he would die of a heart attackŠŠhe would do this to 30 rabbits and every one of them in 97% of the cases would die of heart disease. What if they didn't have heart disease? If they had something else, the rabbit picks up the something else, but all of them that we have tested in this way have ended up with an auto immune disease in the kidney, and if you look at the work of Joseph Issels in Germany who for 40 years treated terminal cancer cases. He started on them when they had already had their chemo, surgery, radiation, then they came to him. That is having 3 strikes against you and a fast ball down the tube there before you get up to the plate. He turned around 24% of 16,000 patients over a period of 40 years. What is the first thing he did? Have a dentist take out the root canal teeth.
Anyone here know what a shirt tail relative is? Do you have those in California? I have rels down in Texas, and a shirt tail relative means that your brothers sister aunt by marriage second, twice removed. Not blood relative but they come to family reunions. OK, so I have this shirt tail relative down there about 24 years old, and she has brain cancer, so what do they do? They take out half her brain. Then it comes back so they take out the other half of her brain. Then it comes back a third time, and there is not much left to take out. Now they probably didn't take out half, I may have stretched the point there a bit, but she was still fully functional, but it was right smack full in the middle of the brain. Three tumours growing, three root canals, and she is pregnant, and it is hard to overcome the stress to the body that pregnancy does, much less trying to overcome cancer, much less trying to overcome the root canals.
So we took out those 3 root canals when she had 3-6 months to live. And that was 6 years ago, and she is still alive today, and MRI can't find the tumour anymore. It went away.
So there are a lot of things, and this is just a tip of this giant chunk of ice under the water that has been making us think we are normal when we have all of these things going on in our body that we caught at the dental officeŠ..it is time you were informed. Don't rush out and have your fillings removed because we get 20 phone calls a day from people who say they rushed out and had there fillings removed and I am in worse shape than I have ever been in the whole of my life. Get yourself educated first."---Dr Hal Huggins, D.D.S. in a lecture to the Cancer Control Society 1993. Tape 93F014. Cancer Control Society, 2043 N. Berendo St, LA, CA 90027. Ph: 213 663 7801.
"I have had a number of patients with breast cancer, all of whom had root canals on the tooth related to the breast area on the associated energy meridian." John Diamond, M.D.
John Diamond, M.D., Triad Medical Centre, 4600 Kietzke Lane, M-242, Reno, NV 89502. Tel: 702 829 2277. Fax----2365
"Dr. Issels innovated the surgical removal of focal infections of the jaw and Waldeyer's tonsillar ring for rapid improvement in the immune status of many patients. He published his observations a number of times in the umpired medical journal of Germany. He was careful to send all extracted dead teeth, root canals, and tonsils to outside pathology labs where they were almost to the last sample documented with multiple infections, atrophy, hyperplasia, etc."----Gar Hildenbrand, Chief of Clinical Epidemiology ISSELS/CHIPSA/GRO Gerson clinics & therapy
Hal Huggins,D.D.S video
Root canal cover-up?
http://www.drshankland.com/rootcanal.html
Are Teeth The Root of Most Disease?
http://www.best.com/~cnorman/blazing/dental.html
http://rheumatic.org/teeth.htm
http://www.zip.com.au/~rgammal/root_therapies.htm
Bioprobe
Preventative Dental Health Association
http://emporium.turnpike.net/P/PDHA/health.htm