My Long Road to Becoming Mercury Poisoned May 2003 When I wrote "Marie's Story of Mercury Poisoning" in 2002 and first put up my website, I was blaming all my mercury poisoning on my dentist exposing me to mercury vapor when I went to his office in August 2001. I was poisoned when I breathed mercury vapor while he was drilling into a "silver" filling. Now that my thinking is clearing up some, and I am analyzing it, I realize now I was already BEING mercury poisoned from CHRONIC mercury exposure through mercury leaking from my fillings. My childhood dentist had placed many of the fillings in my mouth, but my dentist that poisoned me also placed or replaced some of the fillings in my mouth with more mercury. And when my dentist placed or replaced fillings, he didn't protect me from vapor then either. So all the vapor from him drilling and all the vapor that was coming off the fillings was accumulating in my brain. So I was BEING poisoned before I went to my dentist in August 2001. I was 51 in 2001, and most of these fillings had been in my mouth since the 1960's without being replaced. That was over 40 years with these 10 leaky fillings. You might ask, "Why do you think your fillings were leaking?" Because even the ADA has admitted that vapor is coming off of amalgam. I was being exposed to vapor 24 hours a day. Then I started experiencing tingling in my arm and foot in 1996. Once after going to have my teeth cleaned, my chin and face started tingling and going numb. I think the dental hygienist disturbed mercury while cleaning my teeth. The hygienist told me she was taught in dental hygiene school to polish the whole tooth including the amalgam. I also had a severe rash on my skin that would cause me to itch. When I would scratch it, great big whelps would break out on my back and I would be red and the skin would be streaked. I tried changing detergents and soaps and never did find relief. Now that I am using a sauna to sweat the mercury out of my body, the itching returns when the sweat that has mercury in it comes out on my body. The Materials Safely Data Sheet that comes with the Amalgam capsule (mercury filling) states that the following conditions are symptoms of mercury toxicity. Chronic Health Effects: Inhalation of mercury vapours, dusts, or organic vapours, or skin absorption of mercury over a long period, can cause mercurlialism. Findings are extremely variable and include tremours, inflammation of mouth and gums, excessive salivation, stomatitis (sores in the mouth), loosening of teeth, blue lines on gums, pain and numbness in extremities, nephritis (chronic inflammation of the kidneys), diarrhea, anxiety, headache, weight loss, anorexia, mental depression, nervousness, irritability, personality changes, hallucinations and evidence of intellectual deterioration. Findings are extremely variable means that this does not include all symptoms of mercury poisoning. Symptoms vary from person to person. Medical Conditions Generally Aggravated by Exposure: Kidney disorders, chronic respiratory disease, nervous system disorders. Warning: This product contains mercury, a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm. All the above information is written on the Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) that the dentist has in his office when he purchases the amalgam capsules (mercury fillings.) This Materials Safety Data Sheet also says that the route of entry for mercury is : Inhalation: Yes Skin: Yes Ingestion: Yes Acute health Hazards: Eye (contact): May cause irritation and redness. Skin contact or absorption: May cause irritation and redness to skin. Ingestion (swallowing): May cause metallic taste, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhoea. Inhalation (breathing): Inhalation of mercury vapour at high concentrations can cause dyspnea, cough, fever, severe nausea, and vomiting, bloody diarrhoea, stomatitis, excessive salivation and metallic taste, pneumonitis, and kidney damage with renal shutdown. Back in 1996 I didn't know that tingling of the extremities was a sign of mercury poisoning but I was being poisoned none the less. (Tingling can gradually increase to numbness, burning, and then extreme pain.) My dentist should have known of these symptoms by reading the MSDS in his office. I told him about my face tingling and going numb. But he was not at liberty to discuss mercury from dental fillings because dentists are "gagged" and are afraid of losing their licenses if they discuss the dangers of mercury with their patients. If your dentist is discussing this with you, you are blessed and you have a brave dentist. Some dentists who are aware of the dangers may try to do things to protect the patient without drawing attention to themselves. They may start using a dental dam in the office without explaining to the patient what they are doing. Biological dentists will discuss with you the dangers of mercury. However, they will not talk to the local newspaper because they don't want attention drawn to themselves because of repercussions from their state dental boards. Those dentists who testify before Congress are protected. The American Dental Association harasses legislators who try to ban or restrict mercury fillings. So I was already BEING poisoned when I went to my dentist in August 2001. I was having tingling and an itching rash. Then my tooth with a large amalgam filling broke off in July 2001. It just so happened that it broke off WHILE I was taking prednisone for Belle's Palsy. The safety information on the prednisone patient insert sheet the pharmacist gives you warns against persons taking prednisone and exposing themselves to childhood illness like chicken pox and measles, or tuberculosis (TB). It warns against being around persons with colds are other infections. But it did not warn patients to avoid their dentists while taking this drug. If you are exposed to mercury vapor while taking this medication or another medication that lowers your immune system, you are more likely to become mercury poisoned if you are exposed to mercury vapor in the dentist's office. Just think of all the people with MS on steroid drugs like prednisone and then going to the dentist and breathing vapor! What about the people taking prednisone for rheumatoid arthritis? Mercury from the teeth could be the cause of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Mercola states on his website that he has never treated a person for rheumatoid arthritis that did not have heavy metals. He states that with his recommendations of safe mercury removal from the teeth, testing for and removing all heavy metals through detoxication, and proper diet, all his patients improve. See the link to autoimmune diseases on my Symptoms page. Dr. Hal Huggins has written extensively in his books It's All in Your Head and Uninformed Consent about how a lowered immune system plays a part in becoming mercury poisoned. It is the assaults against the immune system that lowers your resistance making you more liable to becoming poisoned. These assaults can come from root canals, the flu, medication, surgeries, poor eating habits, deficiencies in vitamins and minerals and just being generally run down among others. If you go to the dentist and have mercury removed without a safe protocol, and you have been sick with the flu, or you have just had surgery, or you have just had a vaccine that has thimerosal (mercury) in it, then you are more liable to become mercury poisoned. It is the COMBINATION of all these assaults against the immune system PLUS the amount of mercury accumulating in your body that makes you poisoned. (Flu shots contain mercury and aluminum plus many more harmful ingredients. Dr. Mercola gives a list on his website.) I just talked with a lady from Montana who was visiting my church. She became mercury poisoned from her dental fillings AFTER she had become carbon monoxide poisoned from an improperly vented gas hot water tank in her new home. Because she was sick from the carbon monoxide, she also was more vulnerable to mercury toxicity from her mercury dental fillings. When the body can't handle anymore toxins, you become poisoned! I also believe now that the Belle's Palsy was also a symptom of mercury leaking from my fillings and going into my brain. Dr. Hal Huggins has Belle's Palsy on his symptoms' list of mercury toxicity. Belle's Palsy is the inflammation of the 7th cranial nerve in the brain. This nerve controls facial muscles. With Belle's Palsy my eye wouldn't shut, and my mouth was drooping. I couldn't spit out water when I brushed my teeth without drooling all over myself. I had no control over that side of my face. My neurologist gave me prednisone so that it would cut down on inflammation in the brain. If the inflammation isn't controlled, then the face can have permanent disfigurement from Belle's Palsy. I would not want to take prednisone again for Belle's Palsy. I have since learned of alternative things that could be used and I would go to an alternative doctor for this. There are herbs such as boswellian, turmeric, and devils claw that also cuts down the inflammation. But I would seek the advice of an alternative physician. I was on vacation when the side of my tooth broke off so I went to a local dentist and asked for a "patch" on that tooth until I could get back home to my dentist. So my tooth with a large amalgam broke while I was taking prednisone. When a tooth breaks off you can also start becoming exposed to the leaking fillings. Then when the assistant placed a dissimiliar metal over top of this mercury filling the mercury definitely started leaking out of this broken tooth because I started tasting metal. So while I was taking prednisone the tooth broke, dissimiliar metals were placed and I started tasing metal. Metallic taste is a definite sign of mercury toxicity, but I didn't know this is July and August 2001. But my regular dentist should have known this when I went to him for a crown and asked him why I was tasting metal. He told me he didn't know but that some of his patients tasted metal sometimes. He said it could come from grinding your teeth. Grinding the teeth does cause mercury to be released from fillings, but if he had told me I was tasting metal because I was being poisoned, then maybe I could have avoided the mercury vapor exposure that day that caused me to have the severe reaction I had. This is what the dentist should have done. He should have said, "Marie, you are tasing metal because of the patch you allowed the dentist in Tennessee to put on your mercury filling. This has caused a chemical and electical reaction in your mouth called oral galvanism. You are being poisoned because oral galvanism is causing mercury to leak from your fillings. Since you are taking prednisone, which has lowered your immune system, and I don't have any equipment in my office to protect you from mercury vapor while I am crowning your tooth, I am sending you to a biological dentist who can start removing mercury from your teeth with less exposure to mercury vapor. I don't want to touch you with those symptoms going on in your body. I would advise you to see the chiropractor down the road that is a nutritionist so that he can prescribe some supplements for you to take before having dental work done. Or I would advise you to see an ACAM doctor who understands mercury toxicity. I know that Dr. X does understandstand mercury toxicity, so I would advise you to see him first before doing any dental work." If he had done this, I would not have had the severe reaction I am having today. I could have safely had all my fillings removed, and I could probably detox for several months and I would be well by now. But no, he went on and drilled into the silver filling that day and exposed me to more mercury vapor. He put me over the top!! Why didn't he tell me this? 1) Maybe he didn't know what I am telling you today, or 2) He knew but was afraid to discuss it. 3) He didn't want to send me to another dentist and loose the money for putting in a crown. Only my dentist knows the reason why he didn't tell me. When my dentist placed the temporary crown the metallic taste got worse. I was also getting nauseous and stayed up at nights and couldn't sleep. One Sunday morning I called him very early and told him I thought I was mercury poisoned. I told him I might delay putting the permanent crown on my tooth until I could get checked for mercury poisoning. I didn't know that I could leave a temporary crown on my tooth for a longer than a few days. I was trying to find someone to test me for mercury, but since I didn't know who to go to I wasn't having any success. Then the metal taste subsided for a while so I went back to my dentist and had the permanent crown placed on the tooth. Then I became more nauseous and I tasted more metal. There appeared at the base of this crowned tooth a little blue line around the base of the tooth. This blue line is called an amalgam tatto. It is evidence that mercury is leaking from that tooth. So events were all getting lined up for me to be mercury poisoned from years ago. Old mercury fillings leaking from teeth Inflammation from mercury in my brain on 7th cranial nerve causing Belle's Palsy Taking prednisone which lowered my immune system Tooth with large amalgam filling breaking off WHILE I was taking prednisone Tennessee dentist placing a "patch" of dissimilar metals over the broken tooth with amalgam causing oral galvanism, leaking mercury and metallic taste. Breathing mercury vapor one month later when my dentist drilled into the mercury filling. Dentist placed crown with dissimilar metals over top of the partially drilled out mercury filling. Oral galvanism increased, more mercury was released. Another Materials Safety Data Sheet that is put out my Densply/Caulk warns dentists not to place dissimilar metals in the mouth. My dentist knew I had tingling in my body. He knew I had been taking prednisone one month previous to coming to him. He knew that a neurologist was checking me for a neurological disease and that some were saying that mercury from dental fillings was contributing to this disease. But mainstream dentistry does not recognize the connection between mercury in the brain and neurological diseases. These neurological organizations do not recognize the connection between mercury and other heavy metals and neurological diseases. Please see the research of the DAMS president, Bernard Windham which has references to research showing the connection between mercury and neurological diseases. www.dams.cc So if you get all your information from the American Dental Association, the MS Society and the Alzheimer's Association, and other support groups for neurological diseases, you will leave mercury in your mouth and in your brain. In fact, you won't even know you have mercury in your teeth or your body! So isn't it at least worth your time to research this for yourself? Most mainsteam doctor don't even think to look in a patient's mouth for amalgam fillings. Persons have dental work done, start developing symptoms, and may take 10 to 15 years to see the connection between their dental work and their symptoms. The dentist typically does not know that the patient's symptoms started after the dental work he performed. But researchers like Dr. Boyd Haley have researched the mercury/illness connection for years. Some Canadian doctors like Dr. Vimy and Lorsheider have done research on mercury in sheep and monkeys and their experimentation shows mercury vapor in the brain quickly after the insertion of mercury fillings in the sheep and monkeys. So don't allow a doctor who does not even consider mercury toxicity to tell you, "This is all in your head." These mainstream doctors need to get out their medical journals and start reading about mercury toxicity, and then consider this as a source of their patient's illness. As a note, not all tingling in the body is caused by exposure to mercury in your teeth. I had doctors to check for other possible causes and they could not find the reason. Alternative doctors may say that yeast causes tingling, but mercury also contributes to the yeast syndrome. www.dams.cc toxicteeth.org amalgam.org www.iaomt.org Back to the top Back to Mercury Poisoned main page Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes only, and does not replace a personal consultation with the health care professional of your choice. © by Marie Flowers May 2003.