FDA admits mercury fillings may have ‘neurotoxic’ effects
By Bob Condor
Toothsome news for natural medicine practitioners who have long warned about the potential health dangers of mercury-inclusive fillings in our mouths: The Food and Drug Administration admitted possible serious risks to pregnant women, children and babies in the womb as part of settling a lawsuit with several consumer advocacy groups last week.
OK, details in a moment. But this type of FDA warning always perplexes me. So, what, women who are not pregnant and all men should be just dandy exposing their body to toxins? And does ‘children’ mean teens too?
The lawsuit required the FDA to post the pregnant women/children warning last week on its website. “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses,” stated the FDA. “Pregnant women and persons who may have a health condition that makes them more sensitive to mercury exposure, including individuals with existing high levels of mercury bioburden, should not avoid seeking dental care, but should discuss options with their health practitioner.”
Even more integral to the settlement is the federal agency has committed to provide a specific rule of limitation on fillings that contain mercury by July 2009. It is expected that manufacturers will have to label all products with warnings of significant adverse health effects. Of course, there is a central question of whether those product labels make it into the hands of consumers or just dentists.
Nonetheless, the victory has been a long time coming for the consumer advocacy groups. Kudos for their hard work, especially since millions of Americans have these amalgams placed in their cavities.
“Gone, gone, gone are all of FDA's claims tha
t no science exists that [mercury filling are] unsafe,” said Charles Brown, an attorney and spokesman for one of the plaintiff groups, Consumers for Dental Choice.
Some activists were not completely satisfied because the FDA didn’t urge Americans who have mercury fillings to remove them. A good number of holistic practitioners have recommended just that strategy for years.
The FDA had steadfastly posited that research shows no health downside to mercury fillings, while consumer groups such as Moms Against Mercury insisted the amalgams could lead to multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease or brain and kidney damage.
While the lawsuit was ongoing, awareness of mercury fillings among patients and dentists has worked to greatly reduce but not eliminate individual decisions to fill cavities with the amalgams, which are basically half-mercury and half other metals. Resin, glass cement and porcelain have all been employed as safer (and lighter) substitutes. One problem: Those substitutes cost more and are less favored by most dental plans.
Be sure the consumer advocacy will use the FDA settlement and the clear warnings of health risks to next take square aim at dental insurance plans.
“Bob Condor is the Daily Health Blogger for Barton Publishing. He is also the Living Well columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He covers natural health and quality of life issues and writes regularly for national magazines, including Life, Esquire, Parade, Self, and Outside. He is a former syndicated health columnist for the Chicago Tribune and author of six books, including “The Good Mood Diet” and “Your Prostate Cancer Survivors' Guide.” He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and two 11-year-old kids.”
Comments
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I had a whole mouth full of mercury fillings replaced recently, mostly because they were all old and cracked. The primary reason why no metal of any kind should be used to fill teeth is that all metals expand and contract with hot and cold foods and liquids. Consequently, the metal fillings, when expanding, will eventually break the tooth. Also, when a filling needs to be replaced, it has to be drilled out bigger than the original cavity space. My molars were at the point where I only had 15-25% tooth left. This amount should have a crown over the tooth to protect against further damage from chewing. Since crowns are expensive, I cannot afford to get them. Consequently, my teeth are eventually breaking and must be removed. (I have lost two teeth so far, and I haven’t eaten anything like hard pretzels for decades.) All of the information I have recently found out about this entire subject is probably too late to help me very much. I just hope it can help someone else in the same situation. I may be an extreme case, but I certainly am not alone.
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I am 25years old and have had my mouth filled with these fillings since I was a child. Now I am looking at more than just filling replacement. They have cause the teeth around the fillings to crack, chip and break. My Dentist was even stumped on how this was happening with no signs of decay or anything till I brought up the case with these fillings. There has to be something the government can do to help reimburse us for the damages. especially something as severe as this.
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I had acid reflux but was treated,though it messed up my teeth I think because when I went to the dentist he told me that I have cavities and needs to be fill.Anyway my query is can cavities make me feel like am running out of saliva like a dry tongue. And if that’s the case will it go away after the filling,It’s worries me a lot. Please advise.
RE: Mercury fillings.
My husband has had a mercury free dental practice for 15 years! However, the reasoning that pregnant women and babies avoiding mercury should translate to the general population is very faulty.
Pregnant women are unable to drink wine, (why wasn’t every French baby a neurological mess for the past centuries?) even in small quantities, due to the “Possible neurotoxic effects” plays on the phrase “possible,” and on the American inability to think of anything in moderation, or logically. Alternative health care professionals, (valuable) are cropping up everywhere trying to integrate every culture’s proven and anecdotally successful remedies.
What this kind of reporting does is feed very greedy dentists who charge a fortune to rip out 50 year old fillings from seniors and charge them for composites. Now, I ask, who knows what the composite materials will reveal upon study 50 years from now?
You state that you’re concerned. But you make a leap that really concerns me.
CBS’s 60 minutes retracted their yellow journalism on the subject years ago. Mercury is something to be suspect about, but how much leeches into the tooth over a long period of time, is simply hysteria. Very few dentists (flee if you find one) use mercury anymore. But plenty of dentists use your kind of scare tactics to make a fortune on poorly advised victims who are not suffering at all.