Organic Living and Lifestyle Blog

What happened after I had my Amalgam Fillings Replaced?

September 30th, 2007

As you might have seen from a previous post, I went to my dentist last week to get my amalgam fillings replaced. Here’s what my experience was like.

Dr Hall said she has had some patients request no anaesthetic and while she will sometimes agree if it’s a small filling she won’t do it for amalgam replacement.

I thought I’d forgotten all my horrible childhood dental experiences but the sound of the drill and the sucker brought it all vividly back to me and I was soon squirming in the chair. It didn’t hurt, until we got to a cracked tooth and as much as I don’t like painkillers, I was very happy to have another shot.

This experience gave me an opportunity to see how good my mental skills really are and a bit of focussed breathing and consciously ungripping my fingers from the seat (lol) definitely helped. Dr Hall was very supportive and knew that I had a small amount of anxiety around the process and talked me through it and suggested I focus on wiggling my toes to distract myself.

Friends of mine have toddlers who have been to Dr Hall and they could not speak more highly of her. I highly recommend her too and if you don’t live in the area I suggest a dentist with good people skills can make all the difference.

The dental air isn’t like the oxygen mask I expected, there was no rush of cold air. Despite the plastic dental dam in my mouth to catch the amalgam, I could still breathe through my mouth and even swallow.

They have some sort of clamp to hold the plastic around the tooth and this did pinch a bit but it was good to know that the toxic amalgam wasn’t going to be swallowed.

To see what it looks like and get more information, go to http://www.evolvedentalhealing.com.au/biocompatible.htm

The whole process was a lot faster than what I was prepared for, I was only there an hour which was a very welcome surprise.

After Replacement Care & Recommendations

Dr Hall has a natural approach and advised:

Mercury will peak in my body in 3-5 days, despite all the best preventations, some mercury from the process does get into the body
High doses Vitamin C 3 mg / day and continue for 1 month
Eat lots of Protein
Drink plenty of Water to flush toxins out of my body
Coriander & Garlic

My bite feels a little different which Dr Hall explained was due to the resin making a different shape to the amalgam. If felt completely normal in just 2-3 days.

I was quite tired, headache-y and very thirsty 3 days after getting them done which is really unusual for me so I think that may be related to the toxins.

The other half of my amalgam replacements will be done after a waiting period to take it easy on the body. They normally recommend 2-3 weeks but because she’s so popular, it’s going to be a bit longer.

11 Comments Add your own

1. Dental Insurance | October 1st, 2007 at 12:45 am

I have heard that depending on how well or poor of a job, poor in the case of my mother, the fillings were done, some dentists will not replace the amalgam fillings, becuase of the mercury. I wonder where the line is drawn on how much mercury is acceptable in this process. I have the good fortune of never having a cavity, and thus no fillings.
2. Kerri Witt | October 1st, 2007 at 12:57 am

Thanks for writing, yes you are very fortunate and have taken very good care of your teeth.

Your mother like to know that there are more and more dentists who specialize in this, even just in the past 5 years. Did you know it has to be disposed of as hazardous waste?

If it hadn’t been for recent blood tests and my very proactive doctor, I probably would not have been aware of the mercury in organs. I don’t believe any research has been done on an “acceptable level of mercury”, something I know outrages those who have concerns with vaccines.

Dr Eric Davis says on his website: http://www.ericdavisdental.com/facts_and_figures_mercury.htm,

“The degree as to how you will be effected depends on your sensitivity to the substance. The literature available varies a great deal on how many people will be sensitive to mercury. In the U.S., percentages range between 2 to 20% of the population, which represents between 4 ½ million and 46 million mercury sensitive people.”
3. Gloria Hamilten | October 1st, 2007 at 2:34 am

Thanks for sharing, I have known about this for ages but have been putting it off. Thought it would be really painful and expensive.
Gloria
4. Organic Lifestyle »&hellip | October 13th, 2007 at 8:34 am

[…] Ian thought maybe amalgam has changed a lot and there must now be very little mercury in the filling.I was also very concerned about his claim that put Salmon in the same category as amalgam fillings. So I set to find out straight away what my dentist thought of this. By the way, here’s my original article: http://organiclivinglifestyle.com/uncategorized/what-happened-after-i-had-my-amalgam-fillings-replac… […]
5. Discount Cosmetics&hellip | October 25th, 2007 at 12:49 pm

Discount Cosmetics…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…
6. Kerri Witt | October 25th, 2007 at 4:14 pm

Hi, thanks for your feedback. Could you let me know which parts I can improve and make clearer?

Kerri
7. Carl&hellip | December 3rd, 2007 at 8:16 pm

Carl…

mmm…in all my life i never think it that way…
8. Page Davis&hellip | December 6th, 2007 at 12:44 am

Page Davis…

Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts…..
9. organic gardening&hellip | December 14th, 2007 at 1:12 am

organic gardening…

Thanks for the helpful post. I have visited many sites that have been a complete waste of time. It is good to come across a site that actually helps and informs the users… I have included another really good site at the bottom that also helps me ou…
10. organic cosmetics&hellip | April 8th, 2008 at 11:23 am

organic cosmetics…

Interestingly, this was on CNN last week….
11. Kerri Witt | April 9th, 2008 at 6:45 pm

Really? Could you tell me more, I’d love to put a link to it so more people can know about this.