Hi James, thanks for sharing and congratulations on getting this poison out of your mouth. I think you did the right thing. Nobody does everything perfectly by the way, there is always a "snag" somewhere.

I think you did as close to perfect as you could get based on circumstances and the dentist you chose obviously did things right the first time and you had trust in him enough to have him do the last two.

Yes, to rubber dam or not to rubber dam that is the question. I wouldn't have a clue, but seems it doesn't make too much of a difference with some people. I personally feel oxygen, suction and eye protection is probably wiser. You can't do much about the skin, it absorbs mercury too. I remember coming home from just walking into a dental office for a consultation (no work done) and I was a mess from the vapor already in the office environment. I had rashes all over my face by the evening and was crying and itching. Because I am weakened by other things and obviously hypersensitive to mercury. So it is unavoidable.

Wish you all the best on your journey from here on in. And yeah many people experience the second phase of suffering, but not all. I guess though it's the body's reaction to no longer requiring to store mercury everyday and finding it can now start to offload the storage.

DMSA worked well for me. I just did the 4 hour routine Cutler style. Worked the best, did the job. Other stuff moved metals too, but too erratically and created intolerable symptoms that I just could not handle. Cutler's was reasonable and cleared alot of it out of me. Sure, there was pretty still mercury in me, but DMSA did enough to where I was getting healthier again and felt no need to take on the ALA.

But whatever works for you? Go for it. People have different methods, try different ways and usually discover what works. The one I'd be careful of experimenting with is alpha lipoic acid. That seems to be the real risky one and one I'd leave out of it, until I was clear enough of body mercury to try it at all and even then I'd use cutler's way.

Some people use garlic supplements, cilantro, chlorella, many ways and means of chelating/mobilising mercury (DMPS). Some do well, some do not. Some do ok sometimes and not other times. Mercury is a very weird thing and hard to handle. It's almost got a life of its own....guess that's why they call it quick silver.

I found diet highly important in the overall healing process and Hal Huggins suggestions are great. Ousting sugars, gluten, caffeine, (and probably yeast too), and consuming protein foods and good fats (butter especially). Seems to be very healing in mercury toxic people. Having candida, this was essential for me either way.

Cheers.