I've had amalgam fillings in my mouth since I was a kid, because I ate a lot of candy. I'm in my 20's now. I had the fillings placed by a dentist when I was in 3rd grade (how many are in my mouth, I do not know -- I think 3), and had no problems. I moved back to my home town and he put a composite white layer over the fillings to make them look white.

I gradually started to get stomatitis and "geographical tongue" as my dentist called it. He said it was normal and to see my doctor about it if it bothered me. That was probably back in 2000.

I then started to get a rash above my belly button from the metal belt buckle around this same time in 2000/2001. It got really bad, I went into a dermatologist, and she gave a creme and told me to avoid wearing metal belt buckles completely.

In late 2004 I went into the dentist to get a cavity filled. In the process, the dentist drilled into an amalgam filling and didn't use any safety procedures at all. He put a composite filling in its place. I had a metal taste in my mouth, and it hurt for about a month, and I then started to get sharp pains in my abdomen for about 3 months early this year, 2005. It was terrible.

I didn't have health insurance, and I went into ERs it was so bad, and they basically said it was pleurisy and other infammation -- nothing to worry about, and to take anti-inflammatories. A couple of months ago I started to get an extremely bad headache, which turned into the same burning sensation, but in my head. My joints started to pop, and I had really bad anxiety. I was constipated and had bad GI problems, my kidneys hurt, etc. I went into doctors, finally got health insurance, and all tests came back fine. I even got a CT scan done of my head and abdomen which found nothing. Doctors finally gave up hope in me, and my family started to think I had a mental problem.

As of the past month, I started to realize that my problem could've been due to the dentist visit. I've been starting to see white dots, and I've had fine tremors and some muscle spasms. I went into a neurologist and he thinks I might have MS and he ordered multiple MRIs.

In the past 2 weeks I have finally looked into heavy metal "detox" as you are all calling it, and I've been taking selenium and ALA. ALA gave me a terrible headache, but the selenium and vitamin C seems to help. Vitamin C especially with the constipation.

My girlfriend is finally starting to believe me about this, but I'm worried I'm going to get a neurological condition. The headaches are very weird and scare me. The dentist in my area (not the same one where I had the filling drilled into) says that I need to get a compatiblity test done to see what is okay to put in my mouth, and I could be spending $1000+ going up as much as multiple thousands to get these removed, and all they'd do is use a rubber dam, replace them, while on a respirator. I can't afford this with all the medical bills I currently have.

Well, I don't know what to do. My health insurance coverage may be lost soon here, and a lot of friends and family think I'm going nuts. I finish up school in the fall, but I'm afraid I'm going to have severe MS symptoms by then.

I could go in and get the MRI, but from what I've read, if I have Multple Chemical Sensitivity -- at least to heavy metals like nickel (belt buckle problem) and the amalgam fillings (problems presently after removal) then getting an MRI will just move the metals around and cause more problems. If I go in and get an MRI, however, it may show that I do have nerve damage and I may be able to get on some sort of government assistance, and there'd be physical proof that something is wrong with me.

My sister also can't wear metal jewelry, and my mom says that even when I was a kid she had to put me in cloth diapers because my skin was so sensitive to the material.

What should I do? Doctors don't believe me because they think it's far fetched. On the 'net it seems people who have this problem are often thrown in the "psycho" bin and that's that. Well, seeing as I don't have coverage, if I do get that bad and go psycho, I'll be in some state hospital, which will be lovely. I don't want to die twitching or psycho, or people thinking that I am. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />