Hi everyone,

I've just had an initial consult with the dentist that I will be using for amalgam removal. In general I was very happy with the removal protocol that she outlined (they basically follow the Huggins protocol), however I do have some questions about some aspects of the protocol as outlined. I would very much appreciate it if someone can help me with these.

Firstly I do have to travel a few hours and as a result of this she suggested having two quadrants done in the one day (though without crossing the midline). One session would be in the morning, then one in the afternoon. I was just wondering if this is OK to do as I thought that it is generally suggested that one quadrant is done at a time.

Secondly she suggestion that I have a wisdom tooth pulled. I only have 1 wisdom tooth on the top right, the top left is there but has not emerged yet. The bottom two just plain don't exist. I wonder whether there is any real reason to remove the one wisdom tooth. She says it is useless as it has no opposing tooth to grind food with and is hard to clean. Although that does sound like common sense advise I'm also aware that cavitations may be an issue if the tooth is not removed correctly? In that sense it may be better to just leave it there as it is not hurting anything or pushing any teeth out of alignment (i didn't even know it was there).

Thirdly they use a high speed drill to minimise exposure in terms of length of time that the patient will be exposed to mercury, however i think i've read somewhere that high speed is not the greatest idea for some reason - perhaps as it increases heat and vaporisation or something along those lines?

Fourthly - how essential is eye protection? I asked her about this and she said that the respirator over the nose will get in the way of goggles so she just recommends closing the eyes during removal.

Fifthly although they recommend sequential removal, I have some fairly large cavities which require immediate attention (I have not been near a dentist in 10 years). Therefore she is going to start with one of the quadrants that have a low reading. Again, will this make much difference? I think I read a post from Andy where he says the most important thing is to get them out and that removal order is not necessarily all that important.

Finally i have two filings that showed up on the xray but which are white fillings - glass iomer and something else. Would there be much point in replacing these? She says no as they don't contain mercury but to my way of thiking that does not mean that they are not toxic! The fact that they show up on the xray probably means that they either contain metal or radioactive materials??

I would appreciate any advice!
Thanks very much for reading this.

Regards,
Cara

Hi Cara,

Leave the wisdom tooth alone in my opinion (as unprofessional as it is). I had a doctor who is experienced in health issues who told me to just leave mine alone and if they were not causing problems, why get them out? I ignored him and did it anyway.

So with my virus and then the later wisdom tooth removal, my health was never worse and has never gotten better. Again, I do not know exactly what is to blame, but that's the order of events pretty much and all coincided with a dramatic worsening of health and basically my life.

They tell you to remove wisdom teeth for ANY reason. Not being able to clean them as well (big deal, just make some extra effort). That they are impacted and may cause future infection (removing them coincided with my life being ruined, so I didn't need to wait for any imagined future event). I had never previously had issues like that prior to the removal. In fact, they were only a little bit impacted and never posed a problem. I trusted the dentist unfortunately and look where it got me? A total and utter nightmare followed.

As for the rest of your questions? I am not sure enough to make comments on it all. Too many dentists do it differently for me to know who has it "right".

Let me try to answer these. Obviously this is my opinion. hehe

1st question: From my experience two quadrants in a day would be too much for me. But that depends on you. How does your jaw feel after holding it open for 2 hours? Mine is usually on fire and that is with the dentist giving me breaks in between.

I'm not sure I could do that many, but it depends on how many cavities and amalgam replacements we are talking about. If you only have 4 teeth in both quadrants that need filled then it's doable. But if you are like me and had on average 5 teeth in each quadrant that needed filled you'll be sore. This doesn't even go into the potential for side effects from the work. My 2nd visit was by far the worse with mercury poisoning side effects. The others went totally fine.

2nd question: I have all 4 of my wisdom teeth and I've never had any dentist (including the crappy ones) tell me to get them out. I'm not even sure what the reason would be if they aren't coming in crooked or broken.

Yeah they can be really annoying to clean, but you just have to pay extra attention to them. Scrapping the back of them with a hooked pick is essential. A toothbrush can't get in here without banging off the side of your cheek.

3rd question: Yeah they say a high speed drill is bad because it will create more heat and mercury vapor. The dentist I went to did whatever he normally does. The only time I had ill effects was the 2nd appointment and I think because I had 5 cavities filled that day (1 amalgam removal). It was just a lot for my body to handle.

4th question: There were a lot of times where he would rinse and some water would splash up. I was thankful for the glasses, but if their oxygen is completely covering the nose then she is right. It won't work. I guess you could bring some swimming goggles? They are normally more flexible. =)

5th question: It took about 2 months to get all my fillings removed. My dentist will only schedule 2 hour appointments (at the most) and usually only 3 amalgams can get removed in that time frame. I can't imagine keeping my mouth open any longer than that and they are a very busy practice. It would be a few weeks in between appointments.
This is how my appointments went. 1 appointment for each quadrant. On the 3rd appointment I had an upper root canal tooth drilled out.

1st appointment-1 amalgam removed 3 cavities filled
2nd appointment-1 amalgam removed 4 cavities filled
3rd appointment-3 amalgams removed 1 cavities filled
4th appointment-3 amalgams removed

I had a lot of my new cavities filled before starting on the large amalgams too. I was really anxious to rip them all out, but going by quadrants made it easier. That way I didn't have to get more unnecessary novacaine shots and more visits. All in all I had 8 new cavities filled and 8 amalgams removed. Phew. My jaw has had enough.

Last question: All fillings have radioactive materials in them to show up on xrays. These are added so that when you go to a new dentist in 5, 10, 20 years they can see what dental work you have had done. I personally think this a good thing, but I can understand your concern. I doubt you'd find a composite that didn't show on an xray.

Just to add. My dentist did not follow the Huggin's protocol. However what is important is how well they pay attention to details. My dentist was amazing at this. He would make sure the bite was properly readjusted, wiped out any mercury residue with a cotton ball, used a rubber-dam and I had oxygen in my nose. I never had mercury pieces in my mouth after the appointments. Other dentists I would go to, a few hours afterward I'd be picking amalgam and tooth fragments out of my mouth. Yikes! Honestly he was the best dentist I had ever been to and I might write him a long thank you letter.

This might sound weird, but I'm actually going to miss him and his assistant. They were great people to talk to.

Hi Bex,
Thanks for your reply. I had no idea that the removal of your wisdom teeth caused so much trouble for you!! It seems like your body just couldn't handle the stress. Are you sure you don't have cavitations that are causing you trouble?

I think I agree with you - what is the point of having them removed if they aren't actually causing any trouble? I can imagine it would be hard to place fillings in them though if needed so in that case it might be worth removing? I haven't been to a dentist in 10 years!

Wow Birdlady, thanks for taking the time to make such a detailed reply. That's given me a lot to think about and you have made a lot of good points. Thank you very much

Hi Cmlyon, well I already had a viral infection at that time, so perhaps I was much more vulnerable? I had one lower wisdom tooth done on the right side and didn't notice a change. However, when the lower left was done? This is where everything turned to a hellish nightmare. Nobody knows why, as I have had panoramic xrays and even a bone scan and if anything, the lower left side shows more healthy bone than the other areas...

YET, a doctor in my country who uses a voll machine, kept detecting wet gangrene in the lower left side of my jaw (right where that wisdom tooth was taken out and when I got MUCH worse). He tested it again later, even when I showed him all the xrays and scans showed it was fine, and he told me he cannot lie. It's there and that's where it's showing up. He just kept saying "dead pulp" "wet gangrene).

So I'm not sure WHAT to do. How do I get anybody to open up that area and look, if there is no evidence on a test for anybody to do such a thing?

So this is why I have to be permanently vigilent on my diet to the extreme. My body is permanently under strain. This is why detox regimes do little to nothing for me. Because it's ONGOING/persistant conditions I'm dealing with. NOT toxins floating around and making me ill, just waiting to be "removed", so I can get on with healing.