Patient Discusses Amalgam Concerns With actual Dentist

Mr Average enters the dental surgery wondering whether his dental amalgam fillings may have contributed to his chronic fatigue syndrome. The following ensues. Strangely Mr Average is capable of holding a conversation, whereas most patients can’t string more than a few coherent sentences together.

Dentist (D): And how can we help you today Mr Average?

Patient (P): Well, since I last saw you three years ago, I have been stricken with chronic fatigue syndrome, and it has been horrible. Somebody told me my amalgam fillings may be involved in this. Could that be true?

D: Well no, no. Probably not.

P: Probably not?

D: No, those things are as safe as houses, they last for years.

P: But might they be involved?

D: No. And its too much effort and money to replace them with plastic ones.

P: I don’t care about that of all things doctor. Could they be involved?

D: Well there have been a tiny number of reports of CFS, but that is a very mild problem, and nothing to be concerned with. Certainly nothing compared to good teeth. Now let me have a look, you may need a few more ... nurse ready

P: But doctor, it’s a very serious illness, I’m half catatonic, I feel like I’ve been run over by a bus (brushes aside the dentists mirror), and I feel as though I’m somehow poisoned, I have rage attacks, mood swings and ...

D: Ah well yes, you may actually be a candidate.

P: Well what are you going to do about it? How do you know if my fillings are related?

D: Well very rarely we can do a mercury test on you, but its hardly ever accurate. It seems it is not the mercury that hurts some people, but some other factor.

P: Hurts some people? I thought you said these things didn’t hurt anyone?

D: Well ...

P: Can you check my files, and see when the last fillings were put in?

D: Files

P: Yes, my dental records.

D: Dental records. Oh yes. No. They are in storage.

P: But they are right there.

D: Oh those records. But they are not your complete records, the childhood ones have been put in storage and

P: Just have a look at those records, and tell me when the last filling was put in.

D: Let me see ah ... You know the ADA completely disavows any danger from amalgams ... ah, here we are, um, three years and two months ago I placed two, yes, there seemed to be an infection.

P: But that is just before I was disabled! I had completely forgotten, and could not possibly have thought of a connection. Shit, that might be the trigger. (P gets flustered, can’t think clearly any more, needs a rest)

D: Hmm ... mmm ... well it is just slightly possible that you might have a point, although we cannot be sure. The Australian Dental Journal does admit that this can happen as you say. Well. So what do you want to do?

P: Me? You’re the dentist.

D: Its not my job. It is a doctor’s job if you get sick to see you. I mean are you. If he can.

P: But you call yourself ‘doctor’. My doctor told me he didn’t have a clue, mentioned his other patient whose wife had divorced him, and told me to get over it! and not make too many waves. He said doctors who did heard about it in one way or another. He didn’t know anything about the fillings, but told me it was your job. (distraught)

D: Nurse, how many people do we have in the waiting room? Do we need to call in Dr Higginbotham? Sorry, Mr Average, you were saying?

P:

What are we going to do?

D:

P: What are we going to do?

D: Well don’t tell anybody about this (Mr Average inhales) but occasionally exactly the scenario you describe does occur, however we have no way of knowing which patient develops so called CFS from their amalgams (dentist wonders ‘do I have a license to kill?’), and which picks it up by some other means. You see, it doesn’t seem to always be the slight mercury leakage that does the damage (patient thinking ‘mercury leakage- that’s poison, isn’t it’), rather the patients develop crippling candida, which does not show up on a routine blood test, although the naturopaths easily and commonly spot it, but they don’t count, because they’re only naturopaths.
Also there is a dental focus theory that any gum infections interacting with the amalgams may contribute, and these patients are thought to have more gum infections than usual.

P: I’ve got candida (eyes closing).

D: Yes, yes. Well, the best we can do, I mean if you’re really certain, I mean if its that important to you, we can take them out as a precaution, and just see what happens.

P: I’m not certain of anything (eyes open, eyes close).

D: But I must warn you that when mercury fillings are removed, mercury is released into the body. There are protocols to follow that I don’t know- nurse you will have to bump my next two appointments- and make sure my insurance is up to date- and you should be aware that a small number of patients develop multiple sclerosis from the removal process.

P: Multiple Sclerosis.

D: Yes. I have heard rumours.

P: Rumours (exasperated). But you said only before that these things never hurt anyone. MS?

D: Yes, also it seems motoneurone disease possibly. And maybe Alzheimers. But that’s up to the doctors. Apart from that they’re fine, and really Mr Average, you do not have anything to worry about. Don’t concern yourself with these matters, we will handle everything.

P: (Wide awake now) I don’t think you’re handling anything. You tell me after hard questioning that these fillings, that have been in use for one hundred and fifty years, may have disabled me, taken all my money, cost me career?! What the hell are you playing at? I think I will just go to see someone else, an anti amalgam dentist.

D: Well of course you can do that, but you should be aware that a few of those dentists charge two to three times the price and can’t treat your illness either. And if you’re on the poverty line ...

P: But at least they will believe me. Even though they charge me for it.

D: Sometimes more than three hundred dollars a filling. I hope you have a rich benefactor.

P: (Crestfallen) No.

D: Well then what are we going to do? Nurse, could you tell reception to confirm my golf at the links for Friday at two? So what are we going to do?

P: You’re asking me what we are going to do.

D: Yes.

P: You’re asking me.

D: Yes

P: You are asking me.

D: Yes

P: Well I guess we’d better rip the bloody things out. Is there some drug you can give to cancel the risks of MS (gulp)- can I have a bucket please?

D: Well well now don’t worry. We’ll have you fixed in a jiffy.
Yes ... (thumbing through his book) ...
Well they say we can’t take them from both sides of the mouth in a day, but what would they know. I think this guy got into trouble with the authorities- nurse I think you’d better tell reception to clear another two appointments this may take a while ...

mmm ..

nurse, mirror please I’ll just need your signature here Mr Average .. thank you. Accepting that its not our fault if anything goes wrong

Now lean back and open wide .. oh yes, about six of them, we’ll do half today ... rinse and spit, nurse suction. We’ll use some of these new plastic ones, I haven’t placed many of these before, but they have been round for years.

(removes the first, puts in a plastic)

Now don’t move while this cures. Its interesting that you spotted this, probably only one in ten of these tiredness cases are ever spotted.

Strangely I have heard odd rumors of some people getting sick around electrical equipment when they’ve been made a bit tired by their fillings. They call it electrosensitivity. It couldn’t possibly be real though. You’re a computer programmer aren’t you? (P blinks, sweats) Something about early radio engineers hearing the radio through their fillings or some rubbish like that, undersea welders fillings falling out. Some radar operators can taste their fillings around high power antennas, apparently it’s a radiofrequency thermal expansion effect or maybe an electrogalvanic effect, its all greek to me. Its really nothing for you to worry yourself about, its only a small amount of mercury, harmless. Although it does corrode your fillings sometimes.

(P thinks ‘that’s what they said about mercury in the mothers of autistic children’)
Anyway, there aren’t that many electrical appliances around. Here, I’ll just press this button to lower the chair a bit. Now, we’ll do the next one.

(whrrr negear ng whrrr)
Nurse suction.

P: n yarng mgarig ngarauh i’ing.

D: you think you swallowed some of your filling?

Suck it up.

Nurse. Suck it up.

No, the rubber damn caught most of it.

(whrrr negear ngere whrrr)

there next one out

P: I aiody oing a y ing a out is

D: Just a minute (fits plastic filling) Well they had a government enquiry. One of the people on the board even had a background in CFS. He wrote an article describing it as ‘"Bored housewife" Syndrome’ and ‘somatoform disorder’. He even went on tele, describing how these people could not possibly be reacting to chemicals in the environment. They even covered electrosensitivity in fact. The ADA executive director described all of the silly ideas as being based on ‘bizarre theories, poor science, misquotation and incorrect references from scientific literature ...’ One of the chelation crowd was there, as a matter of fact they tried to permanently strike him off, and bankrupted him according to the court record, but we don’t talk about that much.

Nurse, fish out that tongue.

P: Kerk yerk pla

D: Yes that’s right, now you just lean back there. I’ll give you a nice article from the ADA discussing the whole thing.

Suction nurse.
Nurse, have I given you that raise yet?

Nurse (N): No doctor.

D: Oh. Well have I given myself that raise yet?

N: Yes doctor.

D: There we are all done, one on the left, one on the right, four left for next time. Do you think we can see you again in

P: No doctor.

(staggers out of office)