Old amalgam fillings bad for your health?

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1. Nowadays dentists usually use white fillings to fill a hole in your teeth. A white filling is hardly noticeable and therefore looks a lot better. These white fillings are made of composite materials or porcelain.

1. In the past, other materials were used to fill holes. The expensive solution was to fill holes with gold. Gold was also used for crowns and bridges.

1. Although gold is not very fashionable anymore, a gold filling or crown is a very good choice in terms of your health. Gold is durable and contains no toxic substances. A disadvantage of gold is that it is very expensive. That is why in the past, cavities were almost always filled with a cheaper alternative, amalgam.

1. This amalgam can have harmful effects on your health because amalgam is a mix of cheap easy to work materials including mercury.

1. However, amalgam fillings are not prohibited in the Netherlands and if you choose the cheapest option, there are still dentists who will fill you with amalgam, about a third of dentists still use amalgam as the cheapest way to fill a hole.

1. The fact that this amalgam filling is the least good option for your health has been a much discussed topic for some time. Did you know that in the 19th century there was already a discussion about the use of amalgam.

1. In America, the American Society of Dental Surgeons was discontinued at some point because more and more dentists who were members of this association started using amalgam as a filler. This was not allowed by society because the amalgam contains mercury, which could damage your health.

1. So the amalgam-using dentists simply set up a new umbrella organization that did approve the use of amalgam as a filler.

What is amalgam?

1. Amalgam is an alloy of mercury and other metals. Often grains of metal are mixed in the mercury. Usually these metals are silver or tin and sometimes copper is also added to this mixture. The copper will make the mixture stronger and less likely to corrode or otherwise be damaged.

2. Amalgam is an alloy of mercury and other metals. Often grains of metal are mixed in the mercury. Usually these metals are silver or tin and sometimes copper is also added to this mixture. The copper makes the mixture stronger and less likely to corrode or otherwise be damaged.

Mercury poisoning

1. Most studies regarding the effect of amalgam fillings have concluded that the amount of mercury is too low to cause health problems. Of course, this does not mean that amalgam is therefore not a health risk.

2. Most studies regarding the effect of amalgam fillings have concluded that the amount of mercury is too low to cause health problems. Of course, this does not mean that amalgam is not a health risk.

1. Even though mercury has been shown to be very bad for your health, our government believes it is permissible to be exposed to very small amounts of mercury.

1. That this amalgam supposedly does no harm is, for example, also contradicted by the fact that in some countries such as Norway amalgam fillings are now prohibited.

1. The reason? All those amalgam fillings are bad for the environment. The amalgam is therefore poisonous enough to harm the environment, but not poisonous enough to cause harm to humans. Quite a big contradiction if you ask me.

Advice on mercury in energy-saving lamps

1. To give a completely different example which shows that you have to be very careful with mercury powder or mercury in liquid form, take a look at the website of the RIVM. or drop the fluorescent tube, it is recommended to let pregnant women and children leave the room immediately.

2. To give a completely different example which shows that you have to be very careful with mercury powder or mercury in liquid form, take a look at the RIVM website. or drop the fluorescent tube, it is recommended to let pregnant women and children leave the room immediately.

1. These must also absolutely not be present during cleaning work. You have to let the room air out for at least fifteen minutes and you have to work very carefully with rubber gloves armed with the broken energy-saving lamp with adhesive tape and wet wipes in a glass jar. Vacuuming or sweeping is out of the question. The mercury in a CFL or fluorescent tube should be approached with the greatest caution.

2. These must also absolutely not be present during cleaning work. You have to air the room for at least fifteen minutes and you have to be very careful with rubber gloves armed with the broken energy-saving lamp working in a glass jar with adhesive tape and wet wipes. Vacuuming or sweeping is out of the question. The mercury in a CFL or fluorescent tube should be approached with the greatest caution.

1. After that you have to ventilate the room well for a few hours to get rid of the possible mercury fumes. And you can't just throw the broken energy-saving lamp in the trash. In fact, any shoes and clothes that may have come into contact with the mercury residue from the CFL should no longer be washed and must be officially packed in plastic bags and disposed of as chemical waste.

1. So on the one hand, dropping a small CFL is enough reason for a Chemical Apocalypse in your home, but on the other hand, the mercury in your mouth won't hurt you.

Allergic to mercury

1. Besides the so-called negligible risk of mercury poisoning from amalgam, you also run the risk of an allergic reaction to the mercury. A small amount of mercury is released each time, especially by hot drinks. There are a number of general complaints you can get such as:

1. Â € ¢ Fatigue, â € ¢ There is a change in your taste sensation, â € ¢ Muscle pain, Pain in the joints, â € ¢ Symptoms of the ears, nose and throat and lungs â € ¢ Concentration problems, â € ¢ Gastrointestinal complaints.

1. Those are quite a few complaints that you do not directly link to your amalgam fillings. Usually the cause of these complaints is sought from a different angle, such as stress or reduced resistance.

Amalgam and chronic conditions

1. There is also another chronic condition that you can get from amalgam, but this is in combination with an unhealthy habit such as smoking. Namely the condition Oral Richter Ruber Planus (OLP), a chronic condition of the mucous membranes that is accompanied by a lot of itching and polygonal papules. You can suffer from irritation and pain while eating and drinking. Besides itching, this can also be a burning sensation.

1. OLP also has causes other than amalgam, namely smoking, candida, systemic diseases and stress. Especially if you have an unhealthy lifestyle in combination with amalgam fillings, the chance of OLP increases.

The longer the exposure, the higher the risk

1. This usually occurs after the age of 40. This in itself makes sense as the dose of mercury released by the amalgam filling is very small. So due to the accumulating effect of an unhealthy lifestyle in combination with the time that you have the filling, these complaints only manifest themselves at a later age.

1. This again confirms the statement that although amalgam is below the permitted guideline with regard to the amount of mercury, it is not completely harmless. Like the accumulation of mercury in the environment, the mercury does not affect your body until long-term exposure.

1. So the amount of amalgam fillings, how long you have had these fillings, the amount of mercury you ingest in addition to the fillings and how sensitive you are to mercury all play a role in the development of complaints.]

1. Reasoning the other way around you run less risk of mercury-related complaints if you don't have amalgam fillings in the first place. If you also don't smoke and eat organic food, exposure to mercury is just minimal. That is a much healthier starting point than the idea that you can take in some mercury as long as you stay below a certain dose.

What else does mercury contain?

1. In addition to the previously mentioned fluorescent tubes and energy-saving lamps, there is also mercury in barometers and thermometers. Besides the household accidents, there are also other ways in which you ingest mercury.

1. The consumption of contaminated fish is by far the most important source of human mercury exposure. A fish species that can contain a lot of mercury, for example, is eel that comes from highly polluted rivers. Despite the fact that we do a lot to get the water in the rivers as clean as possible, the silt in all major Dutch rivers is highly polluted. Other fish that can contain a lot of mercury are albacore tuna and mackerel.

1. In addition, mercury can also accumulate in animals and plants. When the soil is heavily contaminated with mercury, this mercury accumulates in the plants that grow on that soil and then in the animals that eat those plants.

1. Food containing corn syrup may also contain mercury. Glucose syrup, glucose fructose syrup glucose fructose syrup they are all different names for the same unhealthy substance. This artificial sweetener is not beneficial to your health in itself, but if you consider that it also contains enough mercury to reduce the daily amount of mercury exceeding is an additional reason to forgo that sweet sicker.

1. Breathing in polluted air is the last major factor in mercury intake. Mercury is released, for example, in the metal industry, cement production or the combustion of coal by nuclear power stations.

You run an extra risk when removing old amalgam fillings

1. Now you may want to call the dentist immediately to have your old filling removed, but just having those fillings drilled out is not without risk. Because when you remove your old filling, extra mercury is released. You want to prevent that. That's why it's important for your dentist to take extra care to minimize exposure. There are dentists who specialize in removing old amalgam fillings.

1. The research also shows that removing the amalgam does not mean that the OLP disappears if you already suffer from it. You still have a 30 percent chance that it will stay. This is because the OLP has then become chronic and no longer responds to the mercury in your fill. Fortunately, 70% of people notice a marked improvement after the old amalgam fillings have been removed.

1. Another thing to keep in mind if you decide to have your old amalgam fillings removed is that the holes will get a lot bigger after the amalgam has been removed. So you run the risk that you will need an inlay or a crown instead of a filling. An inlay or crown can quickly cost 500 euros, keep this in mind.

Finallyâ €!

1. My personal opinion is that if it is dangerous for children or pregnant women then it is not healthy for you. The fact that there are all kinds of procedures for safely disposing of a broken energy-saving lamp already shows that mercury is highly toxic.

1. The fact that there is no research that demonstrates the effects of amalgam fillings will be more a matter of how difficult it is to prove that the mercury comes from your amalgam filling and not from the eel that you ate last week or your daily portion of corn syrup you take in, because there are so many ways you get toxins these days.

1. The fact that all products containing mercury, except for energy-saving lamps, fluorescent tubes and amalgam fillings, can no longer be sold within the EU says enough about mercury toxicity.

1. My advice is that you should avoid coming into contact with mercury as much as possible, so in any case, do not use any new amalgam fillings. If you want to get rid of your old amalgam fillings, have it done carefully (and consult a biological dentist) so that you do not get a lot of mercury at once the moment the dentist starts drilling into your amalgam filling.

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