The x-ray was taken in 1992, 2 years before I learned that the dental fillings that had been in and out of my mouth for 28 years were 50% mercury.

With the exception of the two front teeth, which are titanium implants, and tooth number 30, which had a different kind of buildup; every major white spot is either a mercury filling, or a mercury filling buildup under a metal crown.

In the fall of 1983, most of these restorations were mercury amalgam fillings. During a 3 month period, these mercury fillings were ground out with no rubber dam, or any other safety precaution against inhaling and ingesting mercury released by the grinding. They were then refilled with fresh mercury amalgam. Over the course of the subsequent two years I fell deep into CFS and chronic Candida Albicans infections, a state in which I would linger for more than a decade.

In early 1995 I had all the occlusal (exposed to the mouth cavity) fillings replaced with non-mercury restorations, thinking this would completely remove the mercury threat from my mouth. I was wrong. After periods of perfect health established by chelation treatments I would again develop health problems. I came to suspect there was still more mercury lurking in my mouth. Indeed there was.

Between winter of 1996 and summer of 1997, I've had the five gold crowns seen in the x-ray removed, the amalgam excavated, and the tooth restored without the use of mercury.

Some of the teeth link to the paragraphs below, crowns and root canals tend to bring up new pages.

Titanium Implants. These teeth were lost due to a traumatic injury during my childhood. Implants were the best choice for eliminating the metal and plastic denture I had used for 20 years.

These implants were installed before I learned of mercury, the differences of electrical potential between different types of metal, and the accelerated amalgam corrosion and mercury release that would result. Of course the denture I used before was not really better, having steel tooth clasps that touched my rear molars and their fillings.

These titanium implants work really fine for me. The x-ray looks gruesome, but the real life appearance is real teeth.

Ironically, before I had the implants installed I was given extensive material to read concerning the bio-compatibility of titanium.

When I think of the informed consent the oral surgeon felt compelled to give me on the safety of titanium, and contrast it with the capricious, uninformed manner in which mercury amalgam was installed within my gum tissues to seal a root canal, I become more than a little indignant.

Occlusal Mercury Amalgam Dental Fillings. Each of these was replaced in 1983 with mercury amalgam, and then again in 1995 with composite, inlay, onlay, or crown. All buildups in 1995 were done without mercury amalgam.

Chelation treatments during and after these removals led to my "cure". Relapsing health problems, but not full CFS, led me to suspect there was still more mercury hiding within my mouth. I now know that mercury amalgam was used as a buildup beneath 3 of the 5 molar crowns you see here. My ongoing health saga is predicted by me to end with the clean out of all these crowns. At this writing, there is just one left.

 Silver Points Root Canal. This is the last of my crowns believed to be harboring mercury. I go in July 23, 1997 for the removal. As I've removed the hidden mercury tooth by tooth, each time one of the remaining poison bearing teeth seems to take the lead in really acting up.

This last tooth has been throbbing and aching. The endodontist says the tooth has an abscess at the roots. The blob you see at the end of the root is thought to be corrosion products from the leaking silver point. It has been leaking for more than 5 years since it is visible here and on current x-rays. (The endodontist assures me these root canal points really are silver, and not another euphemism for something else.)

I will go to the mercury free dentist at 8:30 A.M.. He will lift the crown, and remove the amalgam in chunks. To accommodate me, and for your eventual viewing pleasure, his assistant will save all the chunks she can, along with the crown.

While he drills on the amalgam I will be under an oxygen respirator, wearing safety glasses. The tooth will be isolated by a rubber dam. This dentist uses the highest power oral vacuum available, and employs an air separator in the surgery room to prevent anyone else in the room from breathing mercury vapor that might escape from my rubber dammed mouth.

At 10:30 A.M. the endodontist will begin his work at a different office. I'll have to drive there from the dentists office. The endodontist thought I was extreme doing it this way. After my December '96 crown and amalgam removal, there is no way I'm having a mercury filling removed without all the precautions. (See my health update for an account of that experience.) Anyway, inconvenient or not, I insist on doing it this way. I'm the patient, I'm the customer, it's my health at stake here.

The endodontist says the removal of the silver points is the wild card, sometimes they are really stuck. Once out, he plans to restore the tooths roots with "gutta-percha" a rubber. If the new root canal is a failure, then this tooth will probably have to be extracted. I really don't want to lose this tooth.

Gold Crown removed December 1996. An extremely large mercury amalgam filling underneath was ground out.

The work was done in a surgery not sensitive to the health threats of mercury vapor and particulate exposure. The next day I experienced heart palpitations as I sat in front of my computer screen. A chelation treatment that day once again restored me.