Setting It Straight - amalgam fillings

Amalgam is the generic term applied to the silver-mercury filling commonly used in dentistry to restore 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 silver-mercury amalgam will set at room temperature, and, most importantly, within a few minutes.

Silver-mercury 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 a silver-mercury amalgam filling is only around five years, according to Dr. Leon Silverstone at the University of Colorado School of Dentistry, some amalgam fillings have been known to last for up to 20 years.

Three times now, mercury from fillings has been accused of initiating diseases. The first time 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 mercury. 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.

Today’s Fillings

Mercury comprises about 50% of the most common filling in the world called silver-mercury amalgam. Amalgam also contains copper, tin, silver, and zinc. It is silver colored when first placed; therefore, the name, “silver” filling. After it has been in the mouth, mercury fillings begin to tarnish. The blacker the filling, the more tarnish has taken place. Silver-mercury fillings have an electrical current which can be measured. The higher the current, the faster mercury is being released. As of 1976, the new American Dental Association sponsored (and patent holder) high-copper-mercury amalgam started taking over the market. Mercury is released 50 times faster from high copper (around 30%) amalgam than the “conventional” silver-mercury amalgam of before that time.

Currently dental amalgam fillings contain around 48% to 51% mercury by weight. Copper comes in second with the high copper amalgam now leading the markets. Copper can be from 24% to 33% of the amalgam. The higher the copper level, the faster the mercury and copper - both - are emitted from the fillings. If a gold crown is anywhere in the mouth, mercury comes off faster. According to university studies done by Dr. Chew, over the first two years after placement, amalgams release about 34 micrograms of mercury per filling (per square cm. of filling exposed) per day. These tests were done of silver-mercury fillings sitting in water and tested daily.

There are many things that make mercury come out faster. As just mentioned, any other metals such as gold crowns, nickel crowns and removable bridges will increase the speed of release of mercury. Chewing foods increases the emissions, dramatically. Hot liquids, like coffee, increase the release by thousands of percent, but only for 10 or 15 minutes. Abrasion from chewing gum increases the release of mercury by 1500% as published. Abrasion during the grinding of teeth during waking or sleeping hours, called “bruxism,” also releases mercury vapor.

Compression of the filling from chewing releases mercury into the mouth. The electrical charge on a filling gives a hint as to how fast mercury, copper and other metals are being released. The higher the current measured, the faster the mercury release. The total amount of mercury released would be difficult to measure, but suffice it to say that the current measurements are adequate to contribute significantly to disease processes, and the actual total mercury release in a living human being with saliva (which has a much higher electrical potential with dissimilar metals than water), in a warm , with acidic foods, bruxism, chewing gum, eating foods and several hundred bacterial strains is greater than any of today’s estimates.

Where does all of this mercury go? Into your body. Absorption of mercury from the area under your tongue and the insides of your cheeks are the fastest absorption. These areas, of course, are in close proximity to the mercury fillings, so efficiency of absorption is great. From these tissues, the mercury can destroy adjacent tissues, or travel to the lymphatic drainage system and directly into the blood stream. From the blood stream, mercury can travel to any cell in the body, where it can either disable or destroy the tissues. Mercury can also travel directly from the fillings into the lungs, into the blood stream and, as before described, every cell in the body becomes a valid target.

Mercury and its compounds are adept at traveling through the “lipid soluble” cells membranes. Cell membranes contain roughly 60% protein and 40% fat. Nerve cells are an exception, containing nearly 75% fat. These fat-rich membranes determine what enters the cell and what does not. Methyl mercury is oxidized into the “ionic” form of mercury. This is a very destructive form of mercury. (Its problem is that it cannot travel very far.) Methyl mercury is the most dangerous form due to its ability to travel great distances and enter all cells. After the trip, methyl mercury is converted into ionic form. The ionic form is what actually disrupts internal structures and metabolic pathways that keep a cell alive - producing proteins, enzymes, hormones; whatever the purpose of the existence of the cell.

All of this travel and destruction is what defines mercury toxicity. It may favor nerve tissue for a destruction target, but the kidney is high up on its list of tissues to destroy. After these two areas, it can wreak havoc in any tissue that might get in its way. For this reason, it is difficult to devise a change in the normal chemistry of the body, called a test, which would “prove” mercury toxicity. It can alter almost anything in the body; therefore, mercury should not be allowed to enter for any reason.

History repeats itself

Three times now, amalgam has been accused of initiating diseases. The first time 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. The average amalgam filling releases about 34 (plus-minus 2) micrograms of mercury daily.

Mercury changes forms. It has different costumes. It ducks into phone booths as organic, and comes out as inorganic, and then darts into a dark cell to do its damage leaving someone else’s fingerprints. Mystery. It did take scientists a long time to determine how mercury changes faces so fast. Each form attacks a different aspect of the cell membrane, or your DNA or your enzymes.

Mercury atoms can attach to any cell in the body rendering it abnormal and subject to destruction by the immune system. This condition is collectively referred to as “auto immune disease”.

Hal A. Huggins DDS, MS, is a leading pioneer and the world's foremost authority in identifying toxic dental materials, balancing body chemistry and developing a multi-disciplined approach to reversing autoimmune diseases.
books and basic, honest, holistic dentistry articles at: www.hugnet.com