A Plea to Dentists Dec 2009
This page is intended without references as it would merely be repeating other pages on this site. It is more of a plea to dentists to take the published science and this material seriously.
As one who spent the first part of my career doing everything that the professors taught, I believe that I can speak from both sides of the fence. I spent 13 years doing literally thousands of root canal treatments. I must have dumped several tons of mercury into my patients, family, friends and anyone else I could get my hands on. I even did routine fluoride treatments every 6 months as the profession suggested. I made everyone around me sick from mercury poisoning including myself. At 27 years of age, while working on the national health in London I had a peptic ulcer and rapidly 
worsening vision. By age 37 I had acute optic neuritis in my left eye, muscle twitches all over my body and face and a very unsteady tremor in my hand. I used to come home every day with a pounding headache and my vision was becoming progressively softer. Emotionally I could swing from one extreme to another, and of course like all dentists, I KNEW that I KNEW and I was RIGHT about everything. Oh dear! I actually believed what I was taught - that dentistry was a high stress profession! I believed my professors and the Dean. After all, why would they lie to me? Is it really such a high stress profession? Perhaps the police, ambulance personnel and the army would be more high stress. Most of us dentists sit on our backsides the whole day and play with other people's teeth. I can certainly understand the stress levels of the patient but really what's the big deal for dentists? 
The answer is simple (though never admitted by the dental associations). The answer is MERCURY. There is not one other group of workers anywhere, who are occupationally exposed to such MASSIVE and LETHAL DAILY doses of mercury. Now wasn't that a simple answer? Perhaps you know another reason that would caused dentistry to have the high suicide rate that it suffers. Why else would female dental personnel have twice the rate of miscarriage, birth defects and infertility than the rest of the female population?
I am now 58, and do not have any tremor, or muscle twitches, or headaches, or peptic ulcer or any other disease. My vision is again perfect. I did have all of my own amalgam fillings removed. I did have my three root therapied teeth removed. I did protect myself and my staff with extra air supplies for dentist, nurse and patient. I believe that I am healthier now than in my 30’s.
I did believe the dental associations, who told us all that amalgam was ‘safe and effective’ and that fluoride really did stop decay and that it was our DUTY to 'save' teeth with root therapy..
Did the dental association support me? Did the dental associations look after my well-being or that of my patients and staff, by denying the truth about the dangers of mercury and amalgam? I began to wonder why I was paying an incredible number of hard earned dollars to an organization that was not in the slightest bit interested in the published scientific data, and who publicly ridiculed anyone who did not toe their line. An organisation who perpetuated the myth that the mercury coming from amalgams was safe. How can any dental association claim to support their membership, and at the same time recommend exposing them to astronomical levels of mercury vapour on a daily basis? By recommending that amalgam is safe and effective they condemn even their own members to mercury poisoning.
Sadly the dental auxiliaries – the nurses and therapists and receptionists have no 
representation to look after their interests and health. These people are mainly women of child-bearing age. These people are the most sensitive to exposure from mercury vapour. They are totally under the power of the dentist’s demands or they could risk their jobs. Female dental personnel do have twice the rate of infertility, miscarriage and birth defects than the rest of the female population!
When a dental assistant opens a capsule of mixed amalgam she/he is exposed to about 1,000 mcg/m3. When the dentist decides to cut out an amalgam, a vapour 2 meter spread. Mercury vapour levels as high as 4,000 mcg/m3 have been measured just 18 inches from the mouth – roughly where the dentist and assistant have their heads.
- The OSHA maximum mercury vapour concentration for a 40 hour/week time weighted average is 50mcg/m3.
- The maximum mercury vapour concentration allowed by the EPA in America and Australia is 0.3mcg/m3.
- The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in the United States says that a transient exposure to levels as low as 0.02mcg/m3 will produce physiologically observable changes.
- The No Observable Effects Level for mercury is ZERO.
Did your dental association tell you this when they said that mercury amalgam is 'safe and effective'? I always get nervous when I hear the words 'safe and effective'.
Did your dental association tell you to throw away a paper mask as soon as you have cut out the amalgam? I know dentists who insist on the staff getting only one mask 
per day. Paper masks have no effect on blocking mercury vapour. It just goes right on through.
The paper mask will however catch lots of the micro particles of amalgam that are created when drilling the filling. Unfortunately the temperature of the breath is enough to vaporize mercury from these particles so that the mercury vapour level inside the mask may be higher than in the operatory.
Did any of us learn these basic facts from our universities?
Did any dental association ever warn its members?
Another Stretch of the Mind
Many smaller dental surgeries also keep their suction units somewhere inside the premises. This means that all mercury vapour that is sucked up in the drilling/filling process is distributed throughout the whole premises. This is why I suggest that it is extremely dangerous to enter a surgery where amalgam is being used. The same warning applies to all dental hospitals where amalgam is used. Some interesting research has demonstrated that mercury vapour is spread throughout the whole of dental hospitals via the air conditioning systems. Who ever thought that the deans of dentistry would not care about the health of their students, who after all are amongst the supposedly highest IQ’s in the population? Other research shows that IQ levels drop at least one standard deviation below the rest of the population after just five years in practice. This is a significant drop since most dentists are about one standard deviation in IQ levels above the rest of the population when they started university!
It seems to me that there is little regard for the well-being of the dental personnel by the dental associations, the teaching institutions or even the dental registration bodies. There is certainly little regard for the safety of dental personnel by the NHMRC or the FDA. The effects of mercury on dental personnel are far reaching. The research has been there for many years. In the past the dental associations said that if mercury from amalgam were so bad for patients, then surely we would see an increased illness rate amongst dentists, who occupationally are exposed to much higher levels. They did not state that dentists and dental personnel were NOT sick, but the implications were there. They also did not state that when a dentist becomes sick and unable to work they usually do not keep paying membership to an association and are thus not included in the count. Dental personnel are severely affected by mercury poisoning. The research supports this claim. There are many published studies reporting on the effects of mercury on dental personnel.
Who is looking after who?
Why are you paying lots of money to an association which actively encourages your exposure to mercury, the third most toxic substance known after arsenic and lead? In most countries, it is not a legal necessity to belong to a dental association. Nor is it a legal necessity to be bound by dental associations' so called ‘codes of ethics’. (I still await their definition of ethics.) What would happen if all dentists realized this and withdrew their memberships? The reality is that the dental associations need your membership much more than you need their lack of support. Understanding this means that you can all push the dental associations to take a more honest position on these maters.
I know that the majority of dentists really do place the interests of the patient as their Number One priority. Unfortunately the things that we are taught to do to people are not necessarily beneficial to their general health. For example we are all taught to do root canal therapy. We are taught that we must remove dead tissue, sterilize the canal and completely seal the canal. Even the Australian Dental Association now accepts that these aims are impossible to achieve.
The Future
As dentists we are ultimately responsible to the person who opens their mouth for us. This may be a patient with whom we have a professional relationship or it might be a family member or loved one. It might be your child. How many would continue 
to do root therapy if they knew that it could cause cancer? How about doing a treatment which reduces kidney filtration by 60%? That’s what the mercury from one amalgam filling does in a couple of months! Why have Sweden, Denmark and Norway banned the use of mercury amalgam? Would you knowingly put a protoplasmic poison into a living mouth if you knew that it does NOT stop decay? No matter what the dental associations and schools claim, there is ample legitimate research to show that fluoride does NOT stop decay, and is influential in the development of osteosarcoma in young boys. Why has Switzerland banned water fluoridation? Why is the Australian water supply being poisoned with fluoride?
As dentists we are providing a form of health care which may benefit the patient or make them ill or kill them. We have a responsibility to take the research seriously enough to examine it. Imagine that where cosmetic dentistry finishes the real dentistry starts. Our mechanical skills can be used to benefit everyone.
Unlike the molar mechanics we were trained to be, we have the opportunity to save lives and improve health. We have the opportunity to live and work in a healthy and joyous environment. We have the opportunity to really be health care providers.
Thank you for reading this far. There is so much for us all to learn.
Robert Gammal BDS. FACNEM(dent)
see also my letter defending ROOTED
There is a great deal more information at www.robertgammal.com
There have been many brave and gifted people, in medicine and dentistry,
who have given their knowledge and courage to try to make this world a better place.
One of those is Dr Weston Price who introduced the world to the dangers of keeping
dead teeth in the mouth. Another is Dr Hal Huggins who since the 1970's has been
waking up the world in regard to the dangers of mercury from amalgam.
He was also the person who brought the work of Dr Price to our present world.
These people and many others have been derided and abused by the established communities,
for taking a different approach to healing and diagnosis.
In his book, 'Report on Radionics', the author, Edward W Russell, makes the following observation;
"This kind of thing is so common in the history of medicine,
that a cynic might observe,
that to be the target of professional opprobrium,
is sometimes a certificate of unusual accomplishment."