Mercury - Toxicity of Dental Amalgam - Why you should have your dental amalgams removed

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[UPDATED MARCH 2023]

Introduction

In November 2003 I chaired a Scientific Meeting of the British Society for Allergy Environmental and Nutritional Medicine (now the British Society for Environmental Medicine) at The Royal College of General Practitioners, which spent the day discussing the toxicity of mercury amalgam. Up until that day I had been advising patients to remove mercury amalgams when the opportunity arose and replace them with white, gold or ceramic fillings. Since that meeting I have had all my mercury fillings replaced. The evidence presented was so compelling that I am now advising all my patients to get rid of their mercury fillings as part of any general work up to almost any health problem, including wishing to live to a ripe old age!

Professor Fritz Lorscheider presented his work over the past ten years. The first question he wanted answering was whether mercury leaches out from dental amalgam. At room temperature, mercury is a liquid and in dental amalgam it is not chemically bound into the amalgam, but there as a liquid, albeit a very tough and stiff liquid. Lorscheider took some sheep, filled their molars with dental amalgam which was radioactively labelled and four months later scanned the sheep to discover the mercury had deposited in their bones, kidneys and in the brain. The next question was: what does this mercury do in the brain?

It just so happened that the adjacent laboratory had set up in vitro experiments so that individual nerve cells could be seen growing using time lapse photography. For a nerve cell to grow nerves which conduct electricity, the first step is a cylindrical cytoskeleton which gives the nerve fibre some structure and the delicate nerve then grows up inside this cytoskeleton. This stiff tube is made up of a protein called tubulin and using the photography one can actually see the nerve fibre growing. Lorscheider then infused some mercury at a very tiny concentration, considerably less than would be found in the saliva of a person with mercury amalgams. At this concentration the growing nerves collapsed because mercury destroyed tubulin so the nerve fibres no longer had any structure.

The pathology of this is similar to Alzheimer's disease, in which neuro-fibrillary tangles are formed. Essentially Lorscheider is telling us that mercury causes Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is also associated with aluminium poisoning and, indeed, aluminium is a very similar metal to mercury in the periodic table of elements. The main source of aluminium is from antacids, antiperspirants and cooking foil, pots and pans.

In California, Sweden and Germany mercury amalgam has been banned. Recently it has been banned in Norway. We should not be using mercury amalgam in U.K.

The early symptoms of mercury poisoning can be very variable but may include loss of short term memory, a metallic taste in the mouth (this is difficult since taste is relative and amalgam is constantly present) and fine tremor. Mercury may also cause personality changes (like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland). It is also toxic to the nerves of the heart and may be a cause of electrical dysrhythmias (palpitations).

There are logical reasons to link mercury and other heavy metals with autism. All children now receive a plethora of vaccinations, many of which contain mercury or aluminium. Lyn Redwood, an American nurse, calculated that her autistic son received 187.5 micrograms of mercury (thimerosal) during the first six months of his life, which is considerably more than the recommended annual dose for adults. Some symptoms of autism overlap with the Mad Hatter's symptoms of mercury intoxication. A study of 94 autistic children [and 45 age and gender matched controls] published in New Scientist [in 2003] looked at the levels of mercury in the hair of autistic children and showed they had a much lower level than neurotypical children. This was the opposite of what the researchers were expecting to find, until they realized that the autistic children were unable to excrete mercury. This meant that the mercury built up in their brains to cause neurological symptoms.

This certainly squares with my view of other diseases. It is the people who are the slow detoxifiers who are not good at getting rid of chemicals, partly through genetics, poor diet or through poor micronutrient status, who are susceptible to illness. The view at the Lorscheider meeting was that with childhood vaccinations one should be highly selective as to those given and only use vaccinations which are mercury-free. At present this is difficult. There is an urgent need for mercury-free vaccinations to be made generally available. The problem now is that mercury in vaccinations is being replaced by aluminium, which may be as toxic.

There was then a discussion about how to remove the fillings. Dr Lorscheider's view was that if you are relatively well, then just go ahead and get the fillings replaced by your usual dentist. However, if you have symptoms which may be mercury-related, then you should get your fillings changed by a dentist specialising in mercury-free dentistry. This is because in removing fillings more mercury is released into the body which may cause acute clinical symptoms.

A telling video can be seen at the ITV Tonight "Mercury Amalgam Fillings Dangers" report on Youtube where the Chief Dental Officer tries to suggest that no mercury comes out of dental amalgam, let alone measurably. He makes a fool of himself in the process.

Finding a dentist

It can be a challenge to find a good dentist who knows how to extract amalgam fillings in a safe way.

These resources may help:

  • There is a long tradition of high class dentistry in Hungary. Prices considerably less than UK. Have a look at Helvetic Clinics
  • In addition, for over 15 years, I have been referring patients to this dentist, who has always done a good job -

Dr Daniel Sutcliffe,
The Bespoke Dentist,
86 Harley Street,
W1G 7HP
Website - The Bespoke Dentist

Testing for mercury toxicity

It is estimated by the British Dental Association that approximately 3% of the population are sensitive to mercury in amalgam and this could be causing a host of symptoms, including immune dysfunction and chronic fatigue syndrome. The best advice is never to have mercury amalgam in teeth (so called "silver" fillings are all mercury amalgams), but the fact of the matter is that most people have. To determine whether or not one is sensitive relies on a combination of the patient's history, symptoms and signs and testing.

Testing can be aimed at looking at the total load of mercury (such as hair analysis or sweat analysis), but this can be unreliable since heavy metals are very poorly excreted and people may have the highest body burdens because they are poor excreters.

See Comprehensive Urine element Profile I use this test following a dose of DMSA as a chelating agent, for assessing mercury (and other heavy metal) levels. Urine mercury levels measured after a DMSA load will provide good evidence of mercury toxicity. Test kits are provided on an individual basis ensuring the correct weight-related dose of DMSA is provided. Please, contact the office to confirm the overall price of this test, including the DMSA capsules needed to do the test.

Undergoing Extraction

The problem with removing mercury from dental fillings is that inevitably some mercury is released. Good dental techniques by a dentist experienced and skilled in using techniques such as rubber dam will reduce this release. One can reduce absorption in the gut by using clays. The idea here is that clays absorb mercury onto its surface and prevents it from getting into the body. I would suggest using Toxaprevent two sachets just before each session of extraction and then one sachet every 6 hours for 2 days after each extraction.

Detoxing mercury after amalgams have been removed

There are many ways in which mercury can be stripped out from the body. Simply doing a good Paleo-ketogenic diet, taking probiotics and taking my standard package of micronutrients, which includes selenium, iodine, vitamin C and magnesium, is an excellent start. See

And see also this page for more useful information about detoxification-

See also these pages for more on the PK diet -

We then have the bolt-on extras according to how bad the poisoning is. These would include:

  1. Zinc 30mgs - zinc displaces mercury from its binding sites.
  2. Selenium 500mcgms at night (sodium selenate 5 drops) - will help to get rid of trivalent cations eg Al
  3. One then needs a good supply of sulphur-containing amino-acids - mercury loves sulphur groups - such as glutathione 250mgs daily or methionine 250mgs daily - then the mercury is excreted in urine. The principles are the same for nickel toxicity Nickel - toxicity and detoxing
  4. Vitamin C 6-7 grams daily (ideally to bowel tolerance). The best form of vitamin C is ascorbic acid and the slight acidity will render the urine acidic, which helps to strip out heavy metals.
  5. Possibly additional iodine 50mgs at night (Lugol's iodine 15% 3 drops)
  6. DMSA strips mercury out remarkably well. We know that, simply by doing a Kelmer test! The only problem is that some people do not tolerate DMSA very well, in which case we have to rely on the above interventions. If tolerated, DMSA is the most reliable way of stripping out mercury. It is not known if DMSA is excreted in breast milk so it is probably safest to avoid DMSA whilst breast feeding. SEE SECTION BELOW
  7. Phospholipid exchange. The idea here is that most neurotoxins, including mercury, are concentrated in fats. Give the body lots of clean fats and these will physically displace the dirty fats which can then be eliminated, with their toxic load, in the bile. See Phospholipid exchange.
  8. Clays: this is a good idea that seems well tried and tested and free from side effects. The idea is that you eat a natural non-absorbable chelating agent that pulls mercury out of bile from the gut.

DMSA chelation therapy subsequent to extraction

NOTE - DMSA can be used to chelate mercury after dental amalgam extraction or to chelate toxic metals in any situation. The rules of the game are the same in both cases and are discussed here.

This idea here is that DMSA "grabs" toxic metals (mercury, lead, arsenic, aluminium etc) stuck in tissues (bone, brain, heart, kidney and elsewhere) and so they are excreted in urine. The problem is that DMSA also "grabs" the trace metals. So one must not use trace elements on the day of DMSA, but then use them on subsequent days as a rescue remedy! So DMSA indiscriminately strips out all metals (good and bad) then one replaces the good.

I used to have a regime of doing DMSA monthly for four days but actually it makes more sense to do it weekly. The regime would be:

  1. Eat your normal PK diet and take your normal nutritional package of supplements
  2. Make one day a week your detox DMSA day!
  3. No minerals on DMSA day
  4. Take 15mgs DMSA per kilogram body weight in one dose on an empty stomach (this could be before breakfast or last thing at night). Start with a small dose and build up according to tolerance. The DMSA comes in 100mgs capsules. If you are allergic or chemically sensitive just take one capsule initially! A 70 kg (11 stone) person could take 10 x 100mgs DMSA. The more DMSA you can tolerate the quicker will be the detox! But any problems and reduce the dose.
  5. If tolerated take ascorbic acid, at least 5 grams, during the course of the day to acidify the urine - this help strip out all toxic metals including of course mercury. Drink 1-2 litres of clear fluids during the course of the day.
  6. Mobilising toxic metals can make you worse, so start with small doses and adjust according to your response! Some people just do not tolerate DMSA but this is rare.

Far Infrared saunaing strips out pesticides and volatile organic compounds reliably well because these are present in fatty tissues. It does not strip out toxic metals. This is because they are in the body "stuck" in the tissues especially heart, bone, kidneys and brain.

At the end of this regime it would be well worth rechecking levels by repeating a toxic elements in urine test to make sure that the toxic metal load has been reduced and get some indication as to whether it is necessary to continue with further DMSA.

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