Your teeth and dental problems are rarely included in a Medical Doctor’s diagnostic assessment of one’s problems. If you see many doctors for your condition with an unsuccessful diagnosis and treatment, think of your mouth as the missing link to your illness. A mouthful of evidence, if properly analyzed, may uncover the root of your illness. Amalgams (silver fillings) and root canals are the likely causes of dental induced illnesses. They are often major contributors to a wide variety of unexplainable symptoms.
No one wants to be sick, but where does disease really begin? Illness develops because one’s immune system is weakened. This is indisputable yet often not acknowledged. Integrative Medicine is based upon this premise. The disease itself represents a “red flag” that a person has sustained immune system deterioration for some time. To eliminate illness, the immune network needs to be strengthened. Integrative medicine equips the body with tools to restore its own immune system.
Any single vulnerable link in the immune system, such as amalgams and root canals, can create favorable conditions for a vast range of illnesses. More often, many factors bombard the immune system over time. While symptoms are not immediately apparent, the progressive weakening of the immune system can lead to chronic illness that is not attributed to one specific cause. Unlike most conventional disciplines, integrative medicine examines the whole person as a means to uncover informational clues necessary for proper therapy.
Five principal causes of immune system deterioration are: Heavy Metal Toxicity, Food Allergies, Dental Problems, Parasites and Fungal Infections, and Poor Diet and Nutrition. This article is the third of a series that address immune system weakeners individually.
Amalgams, usually called “silver fillings,” are available in a variety of compositions that always include mercury (typically 50%), silver (about 20% to 30%), tin, copper, and zinc. Since the mid-1800s, mercury has been known to be a highly toxic substance. The American Dental Association maintains that in the composition of an amalgam alloy, mercury is non-toxic. The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology believes that it is not possible to create a “safe” mercury amalgam. For more information, see IAOMT’s Position Paper Against Dental Mercury Amalgam.
In 2020, the FDA issued a long-awaited warning that dental amalgam should not be used in children, pregnant or nursing mothers or those who plan to become pregnant, phttps://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/recommendations-about-use-dental-amalgam-certain-high-risk-populations-fda-safety-communicationeople with kidney or neurological disease, and those with an allergy or sensitivity to mercury.
The federal agency responsible for regulation of allowable levels of substances at the workplace has established 50 micrograms/cc as the maximum allowable level of mercury vapor in the workplace. The average level of mercury vapor in the mouths of people with amalgams varies between 50 and 150 micrograms/cc. When removed from your mouth, dental amalgam is considered a toxic waste by the Environmental Protection Agency and must be handled in a certain way to protect dental office personnel from mercury poisoning. This is the same stuff, unchanged, which just came out of your tooth! There are over 125 known symptoms of mercury toxicity.
Root canals are another major dental source of illness. A root canal, very simplistically, is the removal of the material in the middle of the tooth and down into the root of the tooth, in order to remove an infection. The problem with root canals is that, although their intention is to remove an immediate infection, the procedure itself leads to further chronic infection over time.
Dr. Weston Price, a renowned dental research specialist in the 1940s, determined that many types of degenerative diseases were caused by root canals. These include many forms of heart disease, kidney and bladder diseases, arthritis, rheumatism, mental diseases, lung diseases, and many forms of cancer. (Dr. Price’s work is summarized in a book, Root Canal Cover-Up Exposed by Dr. George Meinig, DDS.) For detailed examples of dental induced illness within the context of a comprehensive approach to wellness, and the positive outcomes of addressing the dental problems, see the “Outcomes” on my website.
Dental problems may be repaired by replacing amalgams with non-metal materials and correcting root canals. This requires a financial commitment, patience, and persistence. Correcting dental problems is one major step to reaping the rewards of eliminating chronic illness and restoring vigor to one’s health.
Biological dentists understand the dangers of the amalgams and root canals. Biological dentists play a vital role in the recovery from dental induced chronic illness. They work closely with integrative medical doctors who understand the importance of the dental-body connection. As a team, these practitioners look at the whole person in understanding the root cause of illness. (For a list of biological dentists in the St. Louis area, click here.)