If the team around the dental chair isn’t wearing serious respirator masks (like a gas mask), this means trouble to us. After all, if the dental team really understands the risks of mercury vapor from this procedure, everyone who is going to be near your mouth during the procedure would have a respirator mask on (no, the little white dental masks don’t count.) So, if the dental office isn’t protecting the staff, it’s likely that they don’t take the risk seriously, which makes us question whether they would be willing to cut corners on the protocols that are necessary for your safety. How to protect the planet We’re sure you’ve heard the idea of avoiding seafood, particularly the bigger fish like tuna, because they contain higher mercury levels dental scaling machine. How do you think the mercury gets into our oceans to work its way up the food chain into these bigger fish? Many years ago when interviewing our professional friend Dr Paul Rubin, we learned the importance of the dental office using a device called an ‘amalgam separator’ to capture the mercury pieces they remove during the procedure and keep them from getting into the wastewater system. Improper handling of mercury fillings at the dental office is HUGE contributor to why mercury is making its way into our food chain. Currently, dental offices are responsible for 3.7 tons of it each year–that’s 50% of the mercury waste that makes it into our wastewater (according to the EPA) dental handpiece. Dental offices really need to be using an amalgam separator to capture the mercury and send it to a toxic waste disposal facility. After the procedure Make sure you review the detox pathway tips above. Keep everything flowing well. In future articles, we plan to dive into more strategies for helping to remove mercury and other heavy metals from the body. Please be sure to tell us in the comments if you’d like us to write on this subject. How to find a dentist trained in safe protocols Ok, so now that you have the essentials, wouldn’t it be great to have a resource for finding dentists that are fully trained and certified in using these protocols? Here you go… The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) is a wonderful organization that continues to champion the path to increasing awareness of the dangers of mercury amalgams. They certify dentists with their protocols. Here is a link to their ‘find a dentist’ function. More questions… Like so many journeys, as we explore down a rabbit hole, often times we learn something that leads us to new questions from our new place of understanding. Here are some questions we’ll explore in future articles. Is it better to have multiple amalgam fillings replaced at once or space them out? How to help your body remove the mercury after the procedure The relative risks and benefits of having amalgam fillings removed vs. keeping them in place How our genetic profile may determine our risk of mercury toxicity Relative risks of mercury amalgam fillings vs. composite fillings (many of which contain BPA) Please let us know if you’d like us to research and write on these. Also, if you have other questions, please post them in the comments and we’ll add them to our ‘To Research and Write On’ list :). Dental Chair