Lyme Disease and Mercury Fillings
March 26, 2012
I love working outside. Whether it be mowing the lawn or cleaning up brush in the woods, doing outside manual labor is “therapy” for me. However, I have also grown petrified of contracting Lyme disease.
I have seen a steady increase in the number of my patients who say they have contracted Lyme disease. Most of these people said they had the classic “bulls-eye” rash, went on antibiotics for a couple of weeks and were done with it. I have also had other patients who are dealing with long-term issues associated with Lyme disease. Most of the data I found agreed that the success of treating Lyme disease is higher the sooner it is identified and treated. The same data also noted that misdiagnosis of Lyme disease is very high, which often delays treatment.
I think it is pretty safe to say that Lyme disease is bad news. Lyme disease is a multi-system inflammatory disease that affects many of the systems in the body, including the brain. It is most commonly thought to be acquired through the bite of a deer tick that is carrying the dangerous bacteria. However, newer medical evidence shows that the bacteria may also be spread through other means.
Other than the standard antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease, there are also many “alternative” treatments out there. It seems to me that when there are multiple “alternative” treatments to things, where some people show improvement and others do not, the disease itself is not very well understood. I believe this is the case with Lyme disease.
I had a patient recently ask me to review some information about a treatment she is ready to start to battle the symptoms she has from Lyme disease. The process is basically to detoxify the body of heavy metals, including mercury. If you look at stuff on the web about this it brings up the well-known silver/mercury filling debate. Here is an excerpt from one of the websites I found:
“Mercury amalgams are about 55% mercury, and the government makes dentists handle them like nuclear reactor material before it goes into the mouth, and when it comes out of the mouth they have to handle it in the same way, in a bio-hazardous container. But the American Dental Association still tells the dentists and the patients that it’s safe when it’s inside your head. And I think that’s oxymoronic. It doesn’t even make sense.
That means that our heads are considered bio-hazard containers. There’s a device called a mercury vapor analyzer, a device that can be stuck in your mouth after you chew a piece of gum, and it can show you how much mercury is coming off your gum every time you chew. But a lot of people who use that vapor device find that the mercury content in their mouth exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommendation for safe air.”
There is no published scientific data that I am aware of that shows that removal of silver fillings from your mouth cures anything. Having said that, I have not used the material for over 12 years for basically the same reasons that are described in the quote above.
As far as the Lyme disease issue goes, my recommendation is not to get Lyme disease. It seems that Lyme disease is not well understood. For my patient, and anyone who continues to have symptoms after conventional antibiotic treatment, I guess I would try any alternative treatment that seemed reasonable with little risk.
Special Message To My Patients
March 10, 2012
To my patients…….
My blog posts are usually copies of the columns that write for The Town Common paper weekly. If you don’t read them regularly take a look at some of the posts below and see if the subject matter interests you. Pass them on to your friends and family…..or have them like my facebook page.
Dental decay is still a major problem in our society. Decay rates can change over time from dietary changes, medication changes, and gum recession to name a few. Existing fillings or crowns are not protection against decay. Understanding and improving your diet, improving your home care and maintaining professional care are things we can all work on. As I have said before….Decay is a bacterial and pH (acid) disease that I believe is 100% controllable.
One product that I have written about before and talked to many of you about is Xylitol. Xylitol is a sweetner that is also anti-cavity. It can be found in hard candies and gum manufactured by only a few companies.
I recently ordered samples of peppermint candies, fruit lollipops and gum with Xylitol. If you are interested in trying them out to see if you like them, please stop by the office. If you like them I can order them for you. The recommended “dose/day” is 3-5 servings for helping prevent cavities. The thing to look for is to determine if you like the taste of Xylitol and whether it bothers your stomach.
One more important note on Xyitol……it is poisonous to dogs…..not sure why….xylitol is a sugar alcohol…..but it is harmful to dogs so please be aware of that.
Also, I have put many of you on a prescription fluoride toothpaste if I felt you were more susceptible to decay. Although I am NOT a proponent of water fluoridation, I have seen the benefits of topical fluoride. If you are not on this and wonder if you should be, please just ask us.
I believe that most people do not need xylitol or fluoride (or at least additional fluoride) to prevent decay. I think that diet can control most of the decay problems I see. However, change is sometimes difficult for people. Things like xylitol and fluoride are beneficial for people where diet alone cannot change their decay risk.
Thank you for trusting us to work with you to achieve and maintain better health.
Peter St Clair
Holistic Dentistry
March 9, 2012
For whatever reason, I have had a group of patients migrate to my office from a “holistic” dental practice in a different part of the state. The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of “holistic” is –“relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts. Holistic medicine attempts to treat both the mind and the body.”
Most of us are probably more familiar with the term “holistic” in the medical world than in the dental world. I have done a little research on “holistic dentistry”, and to be honest, I have a lot more research to do. In the future, I plan on writing more about my research on this subject.
I make most of my clinical decisions in practice based on peer-reviewed, published scientific evidence. I like facts. However, I am also an avid student of the psychological and emotional side of what I do. My initial research into “holistic” dentistry has found both things that I am attracted to as well as borderline quackery.
For the purposes of the column this week, I am going to comment on the Holistic Dental Association’s philosophy taken from their website. I have commented on each individual paragraph below:
We believe that Holistic involves an awareness of dental care as it relates to the entire person.
Most people are now well aware that the mouth and the rest of the body are connected. We know that there are connections between dental health and systemic health as it relates to things such as heart disease. The holistic approach seems to go beyond this.
We believe that health care practitioners and recipients should be provided with appropriate information to make informed choices that will enhance personal health and wellness while feeling loved, accepted, and understood.
Much of the “holistic” approach is a frame of mind. Different people need different amounts of information to make an informed decision for their particular situation. It is the communication and relationship between the patient and the doctor that is most important.
We believe that Holistic Dental Association membership provides physical, emotional, and spiritual support while we expand our awareness and skills.
No comment.
We believe our educational growth should be nurturing, affordable, and encompasses basic information, experiential knowledge, and leading edge ideas.
Experiential knowledge means knowledge gained from direct experience. I would agree that many of the things we do are based on our own experiences and often that information can benefit someone else. However, I do not see anything in this statement that relates to published scientific data.
We believe in openly sharing resources. We believe in an inter-disciplinary approach to health that facilitates the individual’s innate ability to heal her/himself.
Most organizations, when it comes to learning, are open to sharing resources. Most practitioners use an inter-disciplinary approach to provide what they feel is best for the patients. The last part of the statement is the more “holistic” part.
I will share more about specifics in “holistic” dentistry in the future.
The Survey Results Are In
March 1, 2012
A few weeks ago I posted a survey on my office Facebook page that I mentioned in this column. The question was – If someone offered you $1 million, would you allow all of your teeth to be removed? If you haven’t taken the survey and would like to, please go to the Facebook page listed at the end of this column. If the numbers change on this survey I will report them at a later date. For now, here are the results:
75% of respondents were female
12% are missing more than 2 teeth not including their wisdom teeth
75% of respondents consider themselves dentally healthy while the other 25% consider themselves “sort of” healthy
62% visit a dentist every 6 months
100% would not take the $1 million to have all of their teeth removed.
Although there was not one person who would allow all of their teeth to be removed, let’s look at who took this survey. First, it appears that most respondents were readers of this paper and probably frequent readers of this column. I would make a blanket statement that frequent readers of this column put their health relatively high on their priority list.
However, only 62% visit a dentist at least every 6 months. The national average is around 50%. It does surprise me that only 62% of those who are “more dentally educated” see a dentist at least every 6 months.
When I am quick enough to use them, I like to use analogies. I analogize with cars frequently. Teeth and cars are two things that we use daily and often take for granted until something goes wrong. Would you drive your car until something happened without ever changing the oil? What could possibly happen if you did that? It would probably mean catastrophe. You would probably be told that the car is junk and you need a new one or it would be very expensive to fix.
I see the same thing the mechanic sees. Failure to perform routine maintenance will lead to problems. The extent of the problems will depend on factors such as how well the car was built, how often it is used and/or abused, and how well YOU take care of it. Those who take meticulous care of their car and get regular routine maintenance will keep their car much longer and have many fewer problems along the way.
I was also a little surprised that no one would take the million for their teeth. For $1 million you could have as many dental implants as you wanted to replace the teeth and still have plenty of money left over. However, it is a long road that apparently no one is willing to go through.
In case you were wondering what my answer to the question would be, here it is. As a dentist, knowing what would be involved to take a dentally healthy person’s teeth out, I would also not take the million. The physical, and more importantly emotional toll that this would put on me is hard to put a price on.
We all take too many things that we rely on daily for granted. Think about the things in life that are important to you. Think about what it would mean in your life if they weren’t there. The moral of the story – take meticulous care of the things that are important in your life.
