The majority of what we as the dentist do to protect you against mercury exposure occurs during the Safe Mercury Amalgam Removal Technique (SMART) procedure in our office. Many of our patients ask what else they can be doing to prepare your body for this procedure. While none of the advice mentioned below is "required" in order to have your mercury amalgam fillings removed, we educate our patients on these options nonetheless so you are aware of the whole body approach to healing from this mercury exposure and managing your health moving forward.
So here are a few points that we advise our patients on their journey to health:
(1) Educate Yourself on Mercury Exposure & Healing from this Exposure
The reason why we value the integrative medicine approach vs traditional Western medicine is we believe it does a much better job of treating a whole person (not having a specialist for each part of your body) as well as recognizing that each individual has their own custom needs for restoration and maintenance of health. We are multi-variable, 3D beings interacting with a constantly changing environment; your health today is a product of what you have most recently been doing (ie. working out, eating right, regular check ups, etc), but it is also a byproduct of variables such as your genetics, your lifetime of exposure to mold/toxins, how you were birthed and how you ate growing up, lifetime exposure to certain kinds of vaccines or medications or trauma, what city you live in, etc.
We discuss this with our patients so that they are aware that there is no "cure all"/ "quick fix", and just because patient A may have had procedure X and experienced result Y, it does not mean that patient B will end up with result Y even if treated with same procedure X. Our purpose in applying this philosophy of integrative medicine to our practice is certainly to help them with their oral health issues, but also continue them on a well informed path that emphasizes the inter-relatedness of all of our systems. We believe that it is only with this approach that a patient can achieve optimal wellness for themselves.
Great resources for this include:
The research we've compiled on our Clinical Research & Patient Resources Page
Mercury: Get This Heavy-Metal Poison Out of Your Body by Mark Hyman, MD (Director of Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, chairman of the board of the Institute for Functional Medicine, 9x NYT bestselling author)
Freedom from Mercury Madness by Connie Fox (certified health practitioner and most mercury toxic person ever recorded who survived with no lasting neurological damage)
Consult with functional/holistic/integrative/naturopathic provider. There are many great ones out there, but here are a few that we have collaborated with to co=treat patients and have had great success: Trusted Collaborators
(2) Preliminary Lab Work/ Diagnosis:
We, as your dentist, do not perform mercury testing in office, nor do we diagnose patients with mercury toxicity, but you can typically get these tests performed at your physician's office OR we are happy to refer you to one of trusted collaborators to do so. The benefits of this type of preliminary testing includes:
It establishes a baseline, thus allowing you to know the extent of your exposure and whether adjunct therapeutics should be used to help heal your body from this. This baseline also serves as a great comparison after you have been working for 3-6 months to detoxify your system to evaluate your progress.
It identifies any other concerns in your biological systems (immunity, gut health, hormone levels, nutritional deficiencies, etc) that may make it harder on your body to heal from your chronic exposure.
We have found the Mercury Tri Test to be the most reliable because there are many professional opinions as to why testing only the hair or only the blood will give you an incomplete picture of what is going on in your body.
(3) Systemic Health Support & Reinforcement
Connie Fox of Mercury Poisoned did a great job of outlining a most perfect way to approach the mercury detoxification process.
Now keep in mind, each individual has their own set of variables that will effect this. All of these are important processes to eventually work through, but it is not my belief or experience that they need to be done in this perfect order. I liken it to quitting cigarettes; is there a way to prepare your body to make your smoking cessation process easier and to optimize your body to heal from this chronic exposure to carcinogens easier, sure. But would I prefer a patient wait until he or she has everything else checked off the list and "perfect" before they quit smoking? Absolutely not!
Every patient is different, and certainly there are some who come in to discuss their SMART procedure, and after discussion, we elect to delay this treatment until after some other health-related inflection point (for example, if they have acute pain in another area of the mouth or body, or if they are dealing with a major immunological deficiency that would make recovering from this procedure MUCH more challenging).
So if you do not end up collaborating with a nutritionist or functional medicine doctor who specializes in this kind of detoxification, here are a few things you can incorporate that can support your system. Please note, this does not take the place of personalized discussions with your doctors and anyone should exercise caution when considering incorporating any of these components into their system.
Activated Charcoal - to bind heavy metals sequestered in your body and promote elimination
Probiotics, or products related to improved gut health
Vitamin C, or supplements related to improved immunity
Turmeric, or foods/supplements that decrease inflammation
Clean Water - hydration is of paramount importance at any stage of healing your body
Ozone Sauna, or other preferred means to promote elimination
Whether you seek treatment with us or elsewhere, we really commend your efforts to learn about your health and to be your own advocate when it comes to wellness. Thank you for trusting us as a resource in your process!
If you have questions or feedback as to how we can better support patients just like you, please do not hesitate to reach out to our team via email at info@centraldentist.com , call us at 214-368-0900, or chat with us in the window in the lower right corner :)