Safe Mercury Filling Removal

I always protect the patient from exposure to mercury vapor and heavy metals during the removal of their silver mercury amalgam fillings.  These are the fillings placed in most people in their childhood and teen years, and surprisingly dentists are still placing these fillings today.

Dental students are required to place metal amalgam fillings mixed with mercury in adults and children. These fillings are 50% Mercury mixed with an assortment of different metals. These metal fillings contract and expand when eating and drinking cold and hot foods, putting pressure on the tooth cusps which can result in breakage of the tooth.

While removing these fillings with a dental drill,  there is a high chance that the mercury and metal will get into the body by swallowing and inhaling the particles if barriers are not used to prevent this. As we know, if a mercury thermometer breaks in a school, the school is closed down until the mercury is cleaned up by a hazmat team because it is one of the most poisonous elements on the planet to humans and animals. So we want to be very careful in how we remove the mercury filling. The body is an electrical system that communicates via signals that can be interfered with due to the static created by the metal in the body. We don't want this metal to scatter in the body interfering with cellular communication. Of course, we drill them out with a highspeed drill that makes a slurry of the material creating an aerosol spray.

So we're very careful. We have a pitch and catch system of ionizers in the operatory to catch as much of the mercury vapor in the air during the drilling process. I was personally trained by Dr. Hal Huggins who was the first dentist in the 1970s that really came out and talked about mercury and how to remove these fillings minimizing contamination to the patient and dental team.  We also use a large suction under the patient's chin. We use 2 suctions in the mouth as well. The patient is draped with plastic backed paper barriers that keep splatter off of the patient's clothes and face. We use an activated charcoal powder that the patient swishes and swallows to help bind any escaped heavy metals. (Activated charcoal is an excellent binder of heavy metals which allows the patient to eliminate heavy metals in the stool.

Because I work in this environment, I take activated charcoal at night before I go to bed to help detox my system from heavy metals.)  A rubber dam barrier is placed around the tooth and captures the metals to prevent swallowing of the amalgam.  All team members in the room, as well as myself,  wear a respirator so we don't breathe the amalgam particles. Our patient is breathing an outside source of oxygen with a seal over their nose, so they don't breathe the room air. It's not difficult to remove these restorations and it takes me very little time to do it. Once all the mercury is out of the tooth, we remove the drapes. We treat amalgam waste as a hazardous material, placing any particles in a jar filled with water.

There are special service companies that dispose of the waste. I have disposed of amalgam waste by this process since 1987.  Amalgam is considered by the FDA to be a hazardous material and must be caught by special filters and disposed of by companies that handle hazardous material. Environmental mercury contamination is a worldwide concern. And for patients that have a little claustrophobia, we find mixing nitrous oxide with oxygen, helps to calm nerves.