By Dr Alison Adams – Dentist, naturopath, author and online health coachBDS (Lond), MS (Michigan), Dip Class K, Dip I K, KFRP, Dip AT, MRAT, Dip (Past life therapy), Dip (Life coaching), H I Dip (Complementary therapies)
You are probably already aware that dentists have one of highest rates of chemical and alcohol dependency and marital breakdown of any profession and a suicide rate seven times that of the general population. But have you ever stopped to wonder why? I know when I was working as a dentist I put it down to the unique stresses of the job and possibly the type of person attracted to the profession in the first place. But what if those explanations are inadequate? Did you know that comparing dentists to the general population:

• Their pituitary glands contain approximately 800 times, their thyroid glands 10 times, and their kidneys 7 times as much mercury at autopsy?
• They have significantly compromised neurological, cognitive and behavioural skills? Their urine contains four times and their hair and nails at least three times as much mercury?
• They get significantly more brain, heart and lung cancers and lung and kidney disease?
• Female dentists are three-and-a-half times more likely to suffer from sterility, stillbirth and miscarriage?

Neither did I – until I had to quit the profession with serious health problems only to realise after retraining as a naturopath that what I had been suffering with was mercury poisoning. After several years of an extremely trying mercury detoxification programme, I have now recovered. At first, I questioned how I could have been so unfortunate before I realised that many dentists suffer with illnesses that they may never identify as being caused by mercury. Then the realisation of the catastrophic effects of mercury toxicity in the population at large slowly dawned …
I know I used to wonder why there wasn’t overwhelming evidence of the toxicity of dental amalgam if what the anti-amalgamists claimed was true. But what if there is and the evidence is so blindingly obvious and so huge that no one can see it? What if the rapidly growing numbers of ‘mystery’ health problems we are witnessing in developed countries – asthma, allergies, autoimmune diseases, atherosclerosis, ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s (and those are just some of the ones that begin with ‘A’!) – have ONE uniting causative factor? And what if, as you diligently go about your business, you are partially and unwittingly responsible for this rising tide of human misery and suffering?
 
Mercury and Amalgam: The facts
Amalgam was introduced 180 years ago and is classified as a device (like glasses) and so has never been subjected to any meaningful safety tests. Because no problems were immediately apparent this state of affairs has been allowed to continue for nearly two centuries, so now those who campaign for withdrawal have to prove beyond all doubt that it is toxic rather than proving before release for use that it was safe. In fact, ALL of the metals used in amalgam are highly toxic, but when mixed together and inserted into the moisture of the mouth they form batteries which discharge mercury vapour. This can pass directly into the brain via the nasal cavity and is also inhaled into the lungs from where it can pass in the circulation to the rest of the body.
The concept that mercury is locked safely within the filling has been blown out of the water by research conducted in the last couple of decades. The average dentist will insert up to 1.5 kilos of mercury into their patients every year – 60 kilos in a working lifetime. After 7 years 50% of this mercury will have evaporated and by 20 years 80% – all of which is distributed throughout the unfortunate owner’s body! The chemistry of mercury gets complex, but inorganic mercury is rated as the second most deadly substance – second only to plutonium. When it gets converted into its organic form (either by microbes in the environment or the intestine) it is estimated by some to become 1,000 times more toxic – which makes it INCREDIBLY toxic stuff. The reasons why the link between cause and effect have never been recognised are complex and have to do with delays before the damage is evidenced and the fact that mercury can cause thousands of different disorders depending upon which tissue it has accumulated in. The mercury also binds tightly to the nervous system and to organelles within the cell so that it often evades detection using blood and urine samples. More devastating yet, is the fact that much of the mother’s mercury burden passes to her children in the womb and breast milk so that mercury has progressively accumulated within the human population for 6 or so generations now.
 
A heartfelt plea
For your own sake: Don’t wait for the test results to come back – and the results not to be good. For the sake of your family, staff, patients and their unborn children: Ensure that you are worthy of the trust and authority they have invested in you by becoming fully informed about this matter. If you, your staff or children become sick: Seriously consider the possibility that you could be witnessing the effects of mercury toxicity. To this end, please take the time to look at the explanatory movie posted on the homepage of my website at www.thenaturalrecoveryplan.com and also at the videos and research (over 500 pages referencing over 4,000 papers) posted there. If you want to find out more about the issue, buy my book Chronic Fatigue, ME and Fibromyalgia: The Natural Recovery Plan which details the symptoms and a mercury detoxification programme. It is my firm belief that the authorities know about the risks posed – you only need to look at the tobacco debacle to see how long institutional action might take! The action is going to have to come from the bottom up – and informed dentists are going to be instrumental in making the change.
 
The patients are ready
Many other countries have already banned amalgam and have successfully transitioned. Remember that contained within the Chinese character for ‘crisis’ is the word ‘opportunity’. This is a change that is long overdue and work that desperately needs doing and needs doing properly.
 
For information about specialist training please refer to www.iaomt.org or the courses offered by Dr Dietrich Klinghardt at www.klinghardtacademy.com
Finally: Please send this information to any dental colleagues you think would be interested.
For further reader click here http://www.thenaturalrecoveryplan.com/the_book.php
To contact the author email: alison@thenaturalrecoveryplan.com