How a Mercury Filling Almost Took Our Son’s Life
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A Mercury Filling almost took my son’s life.
Here’s what happened with the filling and how my advocating for our son likely saved his life.
There are some stories about our family’s health that I tell on occasion to share about what we’ve been learning.
Recently I thought that I should share some of these “stories” with all of you so that you can learn more about what we’ve been through.
Before I start, keep in mind that I used to be someone who never thought twice about
- drinking non-filtered water
- eating lots of sugar
- using a microwave
- getting immunizations
Like all those things I mentioned above, I never thought twice about getting mercury fillings either. I mean, why would I have thought that my friendly family dentist put something into my body that would actually hurt me?
Ahem. Think again.
Our Mercury Fillings
Since I completely trusted our dentists, and since the mercury fillings were a lot cheaper than the alternative (and we were not raking in the dough at the time when our oldest needed fillings, and he needed a lot of them), we always got the silver ones.
One particular time, after he got not just one mercury filling, but two mercury fillings, he kept complaining that one hurt. I kept reassuring him that nothing was wrong, but he kept complaining and complaining.
After a while, I started worrying.
I then remembered stepping into the room when he was getting the fillings put in and seeing quite a bit of blood. I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t recall ever seeing a whole lot of blood from fillings before, but then my fillings were always quite superficial and I only had two in my whole life until after I got Lyme disease. But the blood thing continued to bother me.
So I took him in to have the dentist look at it, but the dentist found nothing wrong. I think we even went in twice for reassurance.
The Nightmare Begins
A few weeks later, our son woke up saying that his tooth hurt a lot and his cheek was swollen. That afternoon he laid down for a nap around 2 pm and slept ’til 5, which was very odd for him.
When I woke him up (so he’d actually sleep that night), the nightmare began.
Half of his face was swollen down to his jawbone and up around his eye. His eye was almost swollen shut.
I called the doctor and they sent me right over to the hospital.
Now I knew something was wrong.
Our son was admitted immediately. His swelling was cellulitis, a potentially life-threatening infection of the soft tissues. Since it was around his eye it was dangerously close to his brain.
Not words a mama wants to hear.
The doctor started IV antibiotics, but our son got worse. When I saw my son the next day (Dad stayed in the hospital with him because his younger brother was just a baby and I was home with him), half of his face looked like the Elephant Man’s.
24 hours after being admitted there was talk about him being sent to Infectious Disease because the infection wasn’t responding.
“No!” I screamed silently.
I drove back and forth from the hospital, getting whole foods and clothing for my son. Crying, praying, and singing Psalm 23 from the Psalter…
“Yea, though I walk through death’s dark vale…yet will I fear no ill….”
Finally, just before they were ready to send him on to the next set of specialists, things started turning around a lot. And we went home with a lot of antibiotics and my son finished them.
Nightmare Round 2
Then, about a week later, my son told me that his mouth felt funny.
I looked in his mouth, and there it was. A small swollen spot just above the filling.
I was VERY scared and made an appointment with our doctor.
The Doctor Who Wouldn’t Listen to Me
Doctor thinks mom is crazy and that the swelling will go away on its own.
MD: “It’s not just above the filling” he said.
Me: “Yes, it is.”
MD: “No, it isn’t.”
Me: “Yes, it is.” At this point, I was getting angry and frustrated that he wasn’t listening to my mother’s instincts. Couldn’t he see it? Didn’t he know what we’d just been through?
MD: “What’s it going to take to make you happy, Adrienne?”
Me: “A referral to an oral surgeon.”
And finally, I got the referral and went to see not one, but THREE oral surgeons.
Their recommendations were each different, including:
- Outpatient surgery
- Biopsy
- The third, most experienced doctor said, “I’m just going to pull the tooth.”
I went with the third, since it was the least invasive and least expensive.
The tooth was pulled and the most well-respected oral surgeon in our city said,
“Yes, it (the problem) was just above the filling and I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”
The “it” was a granuloma.
What’s a granuloma?
Well, I didn’t know either, but here’s what it is. According to Wikipedia:
Granuloma is a medical term for a tiny collection of immune cells known as macrophages. Granulomas form when the immune system attempts to wall off substances that it perceives as foreign but is unable to eliminate.
Initially, I thought that my son’s body appeared to be attempting to wall off the mercury filling. However, after sharing this post, two readers commented that the dentist might have created the problem by perforating the root canal and exposing it to bacteria that then wasn’t addressed.
Either way, this was a complete disaster and the dentist did nothing to alert me to anything that had gone wrong, and the doctor wasn’t willing to listen to me.
Regardless, stay aware and vigilant about your and your family’s health.
Tooth removed. Granuloma gone.
No more swelling.
Takeaways
1. Don’t assume that others’ stories of “invisible health issues” or sensitivities are invalid or “all in their head.” I used to think so. Now that a number of them have come to roost in my own household, I know otherwise.
2. Mercury is a poison. I recommend not putting mercury fillings in your mouth as a permanent structure. I’m not saying this is for sure what caused the cellulitis, but I don’t want it in my body or in the body of those in my family.
3. You are the parent. You are in charge of your child’s health. I knew something was wrong with my son and though I was ridiculed by his physician, I pressed on. He might have died otherwise. Guess who isn’t our physician any longer? I sent the resulting medical results to him and didn’t even get a reply. Not good.
4. Don’t take the lives of your loved ones for granted. Things could have turned for us on a dime that day. For now, we are all still together. Thank God.
More “Natural Health” Posts
– Natural Autism Healing and the Best Therapy of All
– Natural Autism Healing – Monster Included
– Help! I Can’t Get to Sleep – Natural Help for Children (& Adults)
– Do You Have Adrenal Fatigue? Take This Quick Test
– How we avoided antibiotics – the pink stuff
– Why I’m Thankful for – Autism
Do you or your children still get mercury fillings?
Wow. What a horrifying experience! So glad that you advocated for what you innately knew to be true!
Yes, it was, Leslie. Thanks for the encouragement!
Glad it turned out ok. Not sure I can say it was the mercuric filling, although I agree there’s no point in risking using them if you don’t have to. Sounds like a procedure gone bad- especially if there’s blood. Teeth don’t bleed- unless you hit the pulp/gums. It’s highly probable your dentist botched it up, it got infected (which is what cellulitis is) and that’s the real issue. Whether it was an amalgam filling or a composite filling- the same botched job by the same dentist likely would have had the same result. It’s even further alarming that he didn’t seem to be concerned about it when you asked him about the issues arising! Get yourself a new dentist for sure.
Oh, I got a new dentist very quickly. I do think all the comments here about mercury are interesting though and my periodontist yesterday (who is excellent and very well educated) was perplexed when I told him the whole story. He didn’t seem to rule out that mercury could have been part of the issue. I like someone like that. Not towing the party line and willing to really listen to a mom. :-).
Hello all – this comment came to me in an email from the wife of a former colleague of my husband’s. You have to read this after all the “debate” here about mercury and whether amalgam fillings are safe or not…..brace yourself…
“Hello old friend! Congratulations on this fabulous site. Found it early this morning when I couldn’t sleep from the gusty winds we’re experiencing.
I’m sorry to hear about your son’s infection, thankfully it sounds like you’re all doing better.
My 2cents on the Mercury thing is research it! I had a very bad experience with a dentist but I brushed it off in my Christian zeal/ kindness/ love your naivete (sorry I don’t know what else to call it! It was during a period of my life where I thought I was discerning but in hindsight I wasn’t). Anyhow, I had mercury fillings several put in my mouth against my desires, I had asked for composite and only had one other filling which was composite. The dentist refused, after he already drilled, and insisted that I can only have amalgam. I submitted, what else was I to do? I was young, 19 or 20 and was raised to be polite, respectful, love people -the last thought in my mind was that this man was poisoning me. A few weeks later I started experiencing a lot of digestive problems, I will spare the gross details ultimately I was told I had either Cancer or Colitis. A colonoscopy concluded I had mutually exclusive symptoms of Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. I was told there was no explanation for what caused these diseases. It wasn’t until years later that I linked the mercury in my fillings to the bleeding and diagnosis.
Years later after delivering my first baby I was told I had an abnormal but benign growth on my thyroid, which I had surgically removed. Fast forward another few years and I was sitting across from my sister one Fall afternoon when she noticed that one of my cheeks is swollen. I went to a mirror and saw the swelling and examined my face, mouth, teeth and it hit me the side of my face with the swelling was the side with most of the mercury fillings. I then felt my cheeks and noticed the cheeks felt different one (the one closer to the mercury) was fatter, thicker than the normal one. Then my mind and hands went down to my Thyroid, oh my! Half my Thyroid was surgically removed, the same side as the mercury fillings and the swelling cheeks. Then I started reading about auto-immune diseases like the ones I have and free radicals/ heavy metals and made the connection that my digestive bleeding, horror and other symptoms/ I developed began after going to the dentist who filed my mouth with mercury fillings. I was really depressed and upset about this, that people who are supposed to heal were behind my diseases and so many problems that have crippled much of my life. I still haven’t replaced my fillings, I’m still looking for alternatives and dentists that follow safe protocols. Ironically the best one I have found is in Tiajuana, Mexico, but that doesn’t sound too appealing.
The safe protocols I am looking for are:
rubber dam
Vit C drip
probiotic diet
covering exposed skin with damp towel or? cover eyes/ nose, surgical mask, goggles or?
vacuum to clean air while during drilling
continuous rinse/ suction of particles during drilling
ceramic fillings
forget if there are anymore but if you really care about this issue find someone who knows what they are doing otherwise you may just be exposing yourself.
I realize my criteria may sound over the top for some but I don’t want any repeats of what I have been through medically and so many of the symptoms and timing points back to the mercury fillings and times in my life where my nutrition and stress levels were compromised.”
Thank you for sharing! I am so glad your son is ok. And the important message here really is YOU HIRED THE DR—YOU CAN FIRE THE DR—!!! I have learned the hard way (like your experience!) that they know not what they are doing for the most part. VERY VERY FEW LISTEN to what we, as patients,are telling them! THEY PRACTICE. That’s all. They guess-sometimes, they get it right-if they don’t kill/harm us first! Do the research, ask the questions-and if the answers don’t suit—fire them and move on! I am about to do the same yet again…
You’re welcome, Sharon. You’re right. They work for us. Like the government employees as well. And I think it’s time to fire a good lot of them as well. OK – I’m not sure how tall this soap box is – can I jump off now :-)?
Hi, I’m back again. I found a website that I thought explained the science pretty well and it is not FDA or ADA (American Dental Association).
(Link deleted by Whole New Mom due to it not working anymore)
It is all good, but I would especially read the first section and the section called Dubious Ethics if anyone reading this either don’t have that much interest or time to read it all.
I would be careful of dentists that say you need to replace your silver fillings for health reasons. They make a lot of money if they convince you they are right.
And I personally wouldn’t believe that mercury can cause infections if 10 dentists believed it. Mercury does cause toxicity in the right amounts, but that is not what caused your close call.
Hi Alan. I am in a real rush this morning, but I’ll read this later.
I will say that I am already very familiar w/ Quack Watch. The man behind the site has made quite a name for himself by going against anything and everything natural. I have dug into some of his accusations and he manipulates facts to make his points sometimes. I don’t have time to go into it now, but I have used some of the products and techniques that he speaks very strongly against (like Young Living Oils) and I have found them to be extremely helpful and safe. I have then taken his accusations to the source and have gotten answers that were very satisfactory and showed where Quack Watch was being misleading. The things that I have tried have proven to be much safer than the regularly recommended protocols in mainstream medicine. I do not mean to be coming across harshly. There is just so much here that I could write a long book about it. I am the Queen of Skeptics. But when I run into dead ends when regular medicine (allopathic) can’t or won’t help me, I try other things within reason. I haven’t been to the doctor for anything other than a checkup now for 2 years, I think. My husband hasn’t been now for about 3 years and my kids only have been once in the past 3 years. We have made major dietary changes and have been doing metal detox (naturally) and finally we are really getting better.
Let me know if I’ve not been clear. I really need to run :-).
This mercury stuff is a puzzle. I can’t say enough how much I appreciate your joining in the conversation.
You’re right – the comments are interesting, but I would go with my gut. Mothers are usually right on regarding such issues.
I thought the one near the end (close to this one) was interesting where the mom shared that a dentist had warned her about these things. I just don’t see how this poison could not be a big deal just b/c it’s in solid form……??
Hey there. I didn’t get to read thru all of the comments, but I just wanted to say that my last 3 dentists have warned of these types of complications and all 3 have said that they do not use mercury fillings anymore and haven’t for 10 years either. They all also recomended that I had mine removed and replaced ASAP. So I did. I had moved so that is why I had 3 dentists! LOL! 2 of them in my last state LA and then the one here in TX also said the same thing. So I just thought in the last 10 years these were not used anymore. It really makes me suspect how many desntists out there are not taking this seriously. Think of mercury. IT IS POISON! Why would you want that in your mouth anyways right? Thanks for bringing awareness to this since it looks like some dentists are still doing this. I would find a new dentist ASAP if you haven’t already! I would be so mad! God bless and I’m so happy your son is okay! How scary!
Jenny, how interesting – you mean they warned you of infections like this from mercury? I did get a new dentist. I am probably the pickiest person when it comes to health care. I drive my physicians and dentists crazy (when they give me cause to do so). I should write about some of the others and what they have done. Really bad. Then, of course, there are the docs who fed me antibiotics as a child who brought me part way to where I am right now :-(. All things happen for a reason. They just aren’t always fun. Thanks for sharing!
Thank the Lord God above that you listened to your instincts. I’m so glad your son is okay now. There is nothing scarier than watching your child face a life threatening situation. I’ve done it.
Thanks for sharing, Rosemary. It was petrifying. I am glad your child is OK too. Please share if you care to.
Wow, I’m speechless! I’m so glad your baby is ok! I would be going nuts! Thank you for sharing this with us.
Thanks for your kind words. What an encouragement this has been to read everyone’s thoughts. Boy, the internet sure can keep one busy -but it sure can be a great tool as well :-).
My frustration is with the DDS – your description of the situation set the bells in my head ringing and red flags flying.
Recently a dear friend was having some lingering mouth pain. I did a quick (over the phone) diagnosis and told her I thought she’d probably need a root canal for an abscess. She protested she didn’t even have a filling in the tooth. I sent her to her DDS, she told him what I’d said, he ‘pooh poohed’ my idea and waited for the x-ray to come out. Turns out I was exactly correct. Seems the ‘god complex’ is alive and well.
No comment cut off – oversight on my part after a re-write. Maybe I was going to say “I use fluoride in my toothpaste too” :0) (just not on children that are unable to understand not to swallow it – about age 3-4 and up. However, I DO think we are over fluoridated with it being added to drinking water, and being incorporated into what we grow etc…)
Thanks again, Sara. There is just so much here to digest and think about. When things quiet down here maybe I’ll call the oral surgeon and revisit. I use fluoride tpaste occasionally now and am really careful to rinse super well. I am not sure about the benefits or not. That’s something else that is clearly an issue to sort out.