The mainstream in dentistry staunchly defends the use of mercury fillings. Historically the mainstream became the mainstream by winning a nasty professional debate (“the amalgam war”) in the eighteen-fifties.

What I refer to as “mercury” fillings, are what most people call “silver fillings” and what the dental profession calls “dental amalgam fillings.” (Actually we call a filling a “restoration.”) A dental amalgam filling leaks small amounts of mercury as a gas which you inhale 24/7. Your body eliminates some of it, but enough remains so that in most people, it accumulates over the years.

Suspicion that mercury leaked from amalgams launched the amalgam war which in turn re-defined the way the dental profession organized itself and, it seems, significantly crippled its ability to think.  Clear evidence that mercury was leaking from amalgams has existed for almost a hundred years. Continue reading →