mercury fillings from teeth

[rodeosweetheart]

My husband wants to have the mercury amalgam fillings removed from his teeth for health reasons. We just went to a very upscale dentist in Savannah this morning that wanted $15,000 (not kidding, no comma misplaced) to remove 8 fillings and replace with porcelain, or $5,000 to replace with composite resin fillings.

We are going to someone local Friday to price it out, but he likes these people because they give you oxygen when they remove the mercury and provide rubber dam so you are not ingesting mercury.

I just looked this up for Mexico at clinic south of the border in Juarez that advertises $64 per tooth to do the same thing, so that would be under $600 if we went there.

Not sure what it will cost in our town or in Hilton Head. The Hilton Head dentist does not give oxygen. The local guy doesn[t even do the rubber dam; the Hilton Head guy says he drills around the mercury and takes it out with high vols of water and suction with chunks of mercury, to avoid vapor.

Has anyone done this? Please don't worry about telling me why you might need to have it done, since I already understand that and don't want to hear about what Dr. Mercola says. I was briefly a patient of his and have my own opinions of him, so please, no "according to Dr. Mercola."

But any experience with mercury removal (safely) and Mexican dentistry very much appreciated! Thank you!

[CathyA]

hmmm.......I think the mercury scare with amalgams has been overblown, but who knows for sure. Fortunately, almost all of my amalgams were eventually replaced with resin or crowns. When my dentist (who is very up on all the issues) removes my amalgams, he tries to take them out in as big of pieces as possible.
If I had 8 fillings removed with resins put in, it would probably come to below $1,000.
I think the upscale dentist in Savannah is a big rip-off. Any reasonable dentist can do this in a way that exposes your husband to the least amount of stuff. He just needs to tell whoever he goes to that that's a concern and to please take the pieces out in big chunks. The oxygen isn't necessary at all (in my opinion.....its just another rip-off).
It can be difficult at times to try to do the right thing. But I honestly think a good regular dentist who is careful would be just fine.

[JaneV2.0]

I had my amalgam fillings removed years ago--mostly because I thought they were ugly. I only had three or four, and the cost was so negligible (and partly covered by insurance) that I don't remember what it was. I do remember, though, that although I had near-perfect teeth as a teenager, some dentist quoted my parents some thousand or two dollars to do a complete workup of my mouth. I didn't need braces and had maybe one cavity. Caveat emptor.

[CathyA]

Its really frightening to hear how some "professionals" will rip you off so much.

[rodeosweetheart]

I thought it was a big ripoff, too, which is why I am consulting you guys:) Do not want to be perceived as big naysayer, unsupportive, uncaring about his health.

Several things put me off about the Savannah dentist, including the fact that she offered us a glass of wine when we arrived. It was eight oclock in the morning. I said, "You've got to be kidding."

[loosechickens]

Well, we've used dentists in Mexico for decades without incident. Both when we lived in southern Mexico, where I saw dentists in Oaxaca and the little town of Potchutla near the fishing village on the Pacific where we lived, and for the last dozen years or so, in Los Algodones, outside Yuma AZ.

I'm not familiar with any dentists in Juarez, so can't help you there....if you were closer to AZ, could supply you with names and contact information for several reliable and professional dentists that we have used in Los Algodones, but........

To me, it definitely sounds like a big ripoff, and the being offered a glass of wine at 8 in the morning sounds more like the dentist is a "wine for breakfast" sort of drinker.....not good.

I'm another who thinks that the mercury fillings are not really a problem, but your husband thinks they are, and it's his mouth.....but I'm sure you could have it done much more cheaply.

another thought....is there a dental school anywhere near you? Often you can get work done there quite inexpensively, by dentists about to graduate and needing to practice on real people under the careful supervision of a professor. that's an avenue as well.

but, I'd definitely skip the "wine for breakfast" lady.....definitely.....

[CathyA]

rodeosweetheart.........are you kidding?? A glass of wine in the early morning? Did she drink one herself? haha
That's VERY bizarre. Stay away from her.

[rodeosweetheart]

Not a joke. I asked her if it was a joke, and she said no, many people like to have a glass of wine to relax. I said, "At eight o clock in the morning!?" but hey, I may be too much of a Puritan.

Yes, it sort of rang alarm bells for me.

LC, we just picked Texas becuase it was closer than San Diego, where husband's parents live--I suggested there, but he does not want to stay there. Maybe he should fly to Arizona as long as he is staying in a motel.

And i will look into dental school, thank you!

[ApatheticNoMore]

I've basically never let them put mercury amalgram fillings in my teeth (yes I've had to pay more for composite). Oh I might have one or two from way back, I seem to remember it being the case, but I can't even find them on my teeth, so I might well be 100% composite. I hope your post is a warning to others to think ahead and get composites so they never have to have them replaced (I know they say the composites don't last as long but they are going REAL STRONG, for over a decade and I have had a decent amount of fillings although I don't get cavities very often anymore. Oh I don't get cavities very often anymore just by avoiding DRINKING sugary things and eating stuff that sticks to my teeth (like dried fruit).

[iris lily]

I love my red wine, but I can't stand the though for alcohol in the AM and red wine isn't a slurpyk you don't drink it for breakfast. That's extreme.

[iris lily]

I have one filling, and it's 46 years old. I assume it's Mercury, what else would they have used back then?

[redfox]

What's the data about mercury fillings being problematic?

[CathyA]

I'm not sure there is any data, or at least any scientific data. I sort of freaked out when I first heard about the link between the amalgam fillings and mercury toxicity (I think 60 minutes did a report on it about 15 years ago). I had a mouth-full of them. I really don't think there's any good science behind it. But I wouldn't use them anymore, just in case.
Sometimes "alternative medicine" docs just get hold of an idea and go crazy with it. I wish they wouldn't do that because I think sometimes they have good ideas.

[mtnlaurel]

My dentist finally retired and when I asked him what I needed to look for in my next dentist he said, "The first thing you need to ask the dentist is, 'Do you have any children in college?'" :~)

After the chuckle, he went directly to his opinion that the studies on mercury fillings were inconclusive to him. He was a big maintain the tooth structure no matter what kind of guy.

He was super funny, after he'd do work on me he'd say, "Now take that over to your big city dentist and show him how it's really done." (I would always come home for dental work although I had lived multiple places across the country). Evidently he was the last of a dying breed that still make their own crowns, etc - I guess they send that off to the lab these days. I tried several times to talk about whitening my teeth with him and he poo-poo'd it every time. So he was pretty old school - his charges were higher than other dentists in our town, but I always trusted him and knew I wasn't getting work done that I didn't need.

[CathyA]

I live in a small town and avoid the local hospital and docs, like the plague. But my dentist here is the BEST. He's intelligent, up on the issues, and always seems to make the right choice about everything. And......he's a kind, sensitive person too. I just love him!

[shadowmoss]

My BIG thing while down here in Honduras is getting my teeth fixed. I found a Honduran dentist I trust. So far I've had 4 crowns, with two of them root canals, and 14 cavities in 6 teeth across the front. I've paid approximately $2K so far. I have about 4 more crowns and 6 more teeth to get cavities fixed. The amalagam fillings are coming out as we work.

The quote from a yuppie dentist in WA for this work was $30K+, and her prices doubled soon after. That was with insurance. I had not had any work done for many years (decades...) because I ended up always walking out of an office angry at the attitude of the dentist.

The work is being done differently than it would be in the US, but I like the guy and I know that my teeth are better now than they were before.

[rodeosweetheart]

Wow, shadowmoss, $60,000! Our house did not cost that much.

Luckily, a little research on the Internet yielded a lot of info on the Savannah practice, and their affiliation with the Las Vegas Dental Institute--I checked into it, and boy, it is not our values. All of the stuff they said to my husband was scripted--they called it "the hand off" and "guild and tarnish" and talked about manipulating the client by making them fearful about their teeth , and discussing their charts with the "team" in a way that would make the client nervous. They said things like, "you don't want the clients who are Walmart and McDonald people--cream rises to the top, and you don't want people who can't afford you." So it's nice to know that we are not their type of client, because they are not our type of dentists.

Today, we went to the local guy and he is great! My husband called to get the xrays at the Savannah place, and guess what--his call was "recorded for quality assurance." They kept trying to sell him, and tried to tell him that he didn't know whathe was talking about with his own insurance plan, that our insurance probably wouldn't pay for the local guy, either.

So that's the latest. I'm very happy that he likes the local guy, and feel we really really dodged a bullet.

Whew.

[pinkytoe]

I thought of this topic yesterday when my boss mentioned she was having mercury fillings replaced one by one. I asked her if it was expensive and she said only $42 per tooth out of pocket. I asked her why she was having it done specifically and she believes that her eye and neurological issues are being caused by the mercury. Hmmm...somewhere along the line some alternative doctor convinced her it was so.

[CathyA]

I think there may be a little truth in it, but there just hasn't been good scientific research on it, and some dentists just take the flimsy data and run with it. And people like me are easily convinced..... I have lots of funky symptoms with my 'fibromyalgia'. My entire mouth was filled with amalgams as I was growing up. So its easy, out of desperation when you have funky symptoms that conventional docs can't explain, to go with sort-of-out-there theories.
Even though I wasn't completely convinced of the amalgam toxicity theory, I was relieved to get them out of my mouth. But I only had them replaced, as my old ones fell apart and I needed crowns or new fillings.

rodeosweetheart.........Aren't you glad you didn't go with her? How ridiculous that they are making it into a class-thing. I guess rich people get pleasure out of wasting money.

[rodeosweetheart]

"rodeosweetheart.........Aren't you glad you didn't go with her? How ridiculous that they are making it into a class-thing. I guess rich people get pleasure out of wasting money.["

I am very glad. I was really angry at first, since I was so disgusted by their business practices, and I do not like waste. We give money to Smile Train, and with $250, they do a cleft palate surgery on a child. I think we've been able to donate for something like 5 surgeries this year. I kept thinking, this would pay for so many children to have a new face, to be able to eat, to have a chance at a life. The Savannah dentist office literature was full of "we give you your life back." The cleft palate surgeries really do give these children a chance at a life--they can go to school for the first time, they are not shunned, they are not locked in their houses. So I was kind of disgusted by the whole, "We're so honored to be the partner in your wonderful new life, now that we've taken $15,000 of your money for eight fillings." Oh, I guess they send you flowers, too. Very much a Harley Street practice.

[Life_is_Simple]

I went to an anti-mercury dentist ~2001, who would remove my mercury for $20,000. I decided to have other work done first, and by that time he moved to a different practice.

I then got a new dentist who said "I will remove your mercury one tooth at a time, as I am working on them for necessary repairs. Then at the end, we will see if there are any teeth left with mercury, and you can decide if you want that taken out at your own expense." I also had a blood test on what materials I would better tolerate having in my mouth.

I had a bunch of needed work, and she took out the old mercury while working on those teeth at no extra expense. However, sometimes when a cavity is filled, dental insurance would want to pay only the "mercury filling price." So I would sometimes end up having to pay the difference between mercury and the new white filling, which wasn't that much.

So now 10 years later, I have most if not all of the mercury gone, at no added expense to get it out.

The other thing, I wasn't sure if getting it out would aggravate health. SO for the first one, I had a chelation-type procedure, where I received 35g of Vitamin C intraveneously a few days later. Another time I didn't have that, but I just took extra Vitamin C on my own. It didn't seem to make a difference, but for some people it might.

[rodeosweetheart]

Thanks, Simple, that is a lot of money! Glad to hear you have been able to get them out, and thank you for the tip about Vitamin C.