Head of British Dental Association Can’t Answer Questions Honestly About Mercury Fillings
February 24th, 2009 Comments OffInterview with Peter Ward Chief Executive of the British Dental Association aired on the “Tonight Program” in the UK.
Archive for February, 2009
Recent articles have indicated to parents that they need not be concerned about vaccines, specifically the MMR vaccine, as a cause of autism. It deals specifically with the fact that thimerosal has been lifted from all but the flu vaccine. I think caution still must be exercised, and that it can’t help to be as well-informed as possible as to both sides of this issue.
In addition to the information available on my website (click) I will provide you, below, with some other links you might like to look at:
AutismSpeaks.com – the primary mover in the suits brought in Vaccine Court. Also look at (click).
Dr. Sherri TenPenny whose response can be found here:
The recent decision on February 13, 2009 by the Special Court of Federal Claims, referred to as the “Vaccine Court,” perpetuates the travesty and once again defends the MMR as though it were Holy Water in a syringe. The ruling stated that claims connecting the MMR vaccine and autism were “speculative and unpersuasive.” More than 1,500 news outlets proclaimed that the MMR did not cause autism. And while the paid mouthpiece of the vaccine industry, Dr Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia chirped, “It’s a great day for science, it’s a great day for America’s children when the court rules in favor of science,” hundreds of children are regressing daily in front of their parent’s eyes after a vaccine. How dare our government – and a doctor who took an oath to do no harm — call them liars? Read More
Dr. Mercola’s website is full of vital information (click).
American Dental Association on Sweden’s Mercury Ban – AND MY COMMENTARY ON IT, FOLLOW THE FOOTNOTES
February 15th, 2009 Comments OffU.S. dentists’ environmental efforts make action unnecessary for dental amalgam – THIS IS LAUGHABLE, AND CERTAINLY WHAT THE ADA WANTS MEMBER DENTISTS TO BELIEVE. WHAT I FIND DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE IS THAT THE DENTAL SCHOOLS MANDATE A SCIENCE-BASED COLLEGE EDUCATION, YET ANYONE WHO IS INVOLVED IN SCIENCE COULDN’T POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND HOW THE ADA’s STATEMENT THAT MERCURY IN AMALGAM IS INERT, ONCE MIXED COULD BE TRUE. WHY THEN, WOULD IT BE UNSAFE TO STORE IT WITHOUT SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS, AND AN ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD TO THROW IT OUT WITH THE TRASH, YET SAFE TO STORE IN AN AMERICAN’S MOUTH
CHICAGO, Jan. 21, 2009–The action taken by the government of Sweden to discontinue the use of all products containing mercury — including dental amalgam –for environmental reasons is not necessary for the United States. (1)
The American Dental Association (ADA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have joined forces to provide dentists with step-by-step guidelines for capturing and recycling dental amalgam waste to prevent its release to the environment. The EPA estimates that dentistry contributes less than one percent of mercury to the environment from man-made sources. (2)
U.S. dentists already capture nearly 80 percent of waste amalgam with standard equipment in their practices, and an increasing number of dentists are also using a device called an amalgam separator which, when added to standard dental office equipment, can capture up to 99 percent of waste amalgam. The captured amalgam can then be recycled, preventing its release to the environment. (3)
Valued as a strong, durable and less expensive treatment option, dental amalgam is a mixture of metals such as silver, copper, tin and mercury that has been used in the U.S. for more than 150 years to fill dental cavities.(4) Its use is declining as patients increasingly prefer natural-looking, tooth-colored fillings and as the durability of other cavity-filling materials continues to improve.(5)
Currently, amalgam accounts for only about 30 percent of dental fillings placed in the U.S. (6)
Nevertheless, dentists and patients continue to value amalgam as a safe, effective and affordable option for filling cavities which is why the ADA developed best management practices for amalgam waste—to preserve this choice of dental filling material as well as help protect the environment. (7) (8)
A recent economic impact study published in the journal Public Health Reports indicates dental care costs in the U.S. would increase up to $8.2 billion in the first year alone if amalgam use was discontinued.(9) Among other effects, this could cripple dental public health programs that serve as a safety net to millions of low-income people. http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/topics/amalgam_economic_impact.pdf (10)
Dental amalgam fillings have helped dentists save the teeth of more than 100 million Americans, who otherwise might have lost those teeth.(11) Best management practices, including capturing and recycling amalgam, protect the environment. Based on dentistry’s already minimal release of mercury to the environment, the approach taken in Sweden is not necessary in the U.S. (12)
1. Sweden began protecting the environment from mercury from dental offices over 15 years before the US did, in fact, in 1997, when I built my new office and equipped it with a mercury separator (NOTE: not an Amalgam separator, for what it does is separate mercury from the waste water, not amalgam from the waste water), I went to Scandinavia to determine what state of the art was. Be sure to read: http://iaomt.org/news/archive.asp?intReleaseID=292
2. What the press release doesn’t state is that in most of the country, these procedures are not required. In NJ, where I practice, new regulations go into effect in September 2010. Most dentists, for obvious economic reasons, are holding off on purchasing systems (average cost, about $1000 a year). Dentistry is the leading NON-REGULATED industrial source of mercury in the environment.
3. They may capture 80%, but they don’t dispose of it properly. Just survey dental assistants as to their knowledge of how to properly dispose of it; you’ll be astounded.
4. What this doesn’t say, is that the material is 50% mercury; the most toxic, naturally-occurring substance on the planet.
5. But insurance companies don’t reimburse for composite, preferring to save their money, employing a “least expensive alternative” clause which makes the placement of dental amalgam far more prevalent than one would choose to believe.
6. I believe this number is closer to 60%. Most patients, faced with the economics of the decision, opt for the cheaper substance. In fact, a Zogby poll of Americans about 5 years ago showed that 80% of all those surveyed were unaware of the fact that mercury made up half of their fillings, and would have chosen alternative materials if they had been so informed.
7. It’s remarks like this one that have caused me to terminate my membership in the ADA after more than 35 years. They certainly don’t represent the way I think. They confuse the facts: It’s the removal of mercury fillings, not the placement of mercury fillings that pose a threat to the environment and to individual health. If these fillings are not removed properly, they pose a far greater health risk to the individual, since the mercury slurry that does not get sucked up by the vacuum system remains on the floor of the mouth, for quick uptake into the tissue.
8. Fillings which break teeth due to thermocycling and fracture, over the long haul are far more expensive to the patient in terms of the need for crowns, and/or extractions and bridgework.
9. As I said in my address before the FDA on this subject in 2006, the cost-savings to the health insurance industry by the banning of the material would probably exceed the costs for the fillings because of the untold numbers of patients who are in treatment for many different problems (e.g. infertility, early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, M.S., chronic fatigue, neurological problems, memory loss, Meniere’s Disease to name a few) that might be related to their body’s inability to properly handle the mercury burden.
10. So are they saying that only 30% of the people in this country aren’t rich enough to be able to afford composite fillings? Once again, the ADA is talking out of both sides of their mouth. In fact, Philadelphia City Council, recognizing that the poor are the ones most likely to receive this inferior product, has mandated informed consent for the placement of mercury fillings in its citizens’ mouths.
11. And they have also broken a fair share to teeth that might have been saved if composite fillings had been bonded to place.
12. Wait a minute….Sweden, which has been using separators for years is in worse shape than the great dentists of the US who have no concern about the environmental issues? For more commentary, please contact me at: 856 546 0665
Over this weekend this, and several other issues such as the use of Mountain Dew, the failure of MD’s to provide supplementation as opposed to medication, and the fallacy of MMR vaccine not being the cause of autism, have been addressed on my blog site www.SmileSouthJersey.com
More subterfuge in this story, as nobody talks about the Thimerosal, used as a preservative, just the pure MMR vaccine.
For further information, visit the Autism and Vaccines page on our website: http://www.cent4dent.com/html/mercury_issues/vaccines.html
From the web, courtesy of The Jackson (miss) Free Press.
Something I’ve been talking about for years (see: Dr. Markus Discusses the Harmful Effects of Soda at http://www.cent4dent.com/html/office_info/media.htm)
Here is the Article
ABC’s 20/20 is showing a special episode tonight at 9 PM CT called “A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains” which highlights poverty-stricken children of Appalachia. One of the many issues facing these children is rampant tooth decay and tooth loss. A Kentucky dentist, Dr. Edwin Smith, helps children in his area by offering free dental care in his mobile clinic. Dr. Smith blames a lot of the cavities he sees on excessive Mountain Dew consumption.
Central Appalachia is No. 1 in the nation in toothlessness. According to dentists, one of the main culprits is Mountain Dew soda. With 50 percent more caffeine than Coke or Pepsi, Mountain Dew seems to be used as a kind of anti-depressant for children in the hills.
Kids drink the soda in school, at football games and before going to bed at night. And drinking the sugary soda loaded with caffeine often starts early. Dentists speak about families who put soda in baby bottles.
“Other sodas, too,” said Smith, “but Mountain Dew is unique because it has a lot of sugar and a lot of acid. If you’re taking a drink every 20 minutes, that’s like bathing the teeth in it all day.”
“It’s just rampant decay,” adds Dr. Stacie Moore-Martin of the Mud Creek Clinic in Grethel, Ky. “People are addicted to Mountain Dew. It’s terrible.”
Pepsi, the makers of Mountain Dew, told ABC News in an initial statement that it’s preposterous to blame soft drinks for dental decay, saying that raisins and cookies stay in the mouth longer. They added that a balanced diet and proper dental hygiene like flossing and brushing teeth after meals and snacks should prevent decay.
After a report on the topic aired on “Good Morning America” Thursday, Pepsi sent an additional statement saying that their products “consumed in moderation, can be part of a healthy, balanced diet.”
They said the company is “continually expanding our offerings of healthier, more nutritious products” and that they “offer a wide range of sugar-free and caffeine-free products.” They also said they are working with schools, non-profits and the government to educate people about healthier lifestyles. CLICK HERE for the full statement.
The dental dilemma in Kentucky is that nearly one out of every two of the state’s children are enrolled in Medicaid, but barely a quarter of dentists accept the insurance. So for the Appalachian families on Medicaid, they often have few options when or if they want to see a dentist.
So, who’s really to blame for “Mountain Dew Mouth”? Pepsi? The children who drink it? The parents? The dentists who don’t accept Medicaid? Our health care system?
What do you think? My Reply The children and the parents need to be better educated, especially if they don’t have dental insurance (and Medicaid isn’t dental insurance). This is condition which, if the parents knew the devastation it caused would have to be paid for by them, or they would watch the consequences of their inaction. It certainly would not be the dentists who don’t accept Medicaid. This would be akin to asking someone who already gave a considerable donation to an organization to match it 10x over. Blame it on the health care system? Possibly there’s been a breakdown in the amount of information that has been conveyed to parents. But ultimately the blame lies with the government not being able to curb the use of this health killer, and get the dramatic photos of cases caused by sipping the Dew into the public’s hands.
All parents should be required to watch this video: http://i.abcnews.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6870419
(OMNS, February 5, 2009) It may be the worst-kept secret in medicine:
pharmaceutical money buys journal influence. What the public has so long
suspected has now been demonstrated in a recently published peer-reviewed
study. (1) Researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and
the University of Florida found that “in major medical journals, more
pharmaceutical advertising is associated with publishing fewer articles
about dietary supplements.” Furthermore, they found that more pharmaceutical
company advertising resulted in the journal having more articles with
“negative conclusions about dietary supplement safety.”
This new study, the first of its kind, specifically looked at pharmaceutical
advertising as compared with journal text about dietary supplements. The
authors reviewed a year’s worth of issues from each of eleven of the largest
medical journals: the Journal of the American Medical Association, New
England Journal of Medicine, British Medical Journal, Canadian Medical
Association Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, Archives of Internal
Medicine, Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Pediatrics and
Pediatric Research, and American Family Physician.
The results were statistically significant. . . and embarrassing. Medical
journals carrying the most pharmaceutical ads “published significantly fewer
major articles about dietary supplements per issue than journals with the
fewest pharmads (P < 0.01). Journals with the most pharmads published no
clinical trials or cohort studies about supplements. The percentage of major
articles concluding that supplements were unsafe was 4% in journals with
fewest and 67% among those with the most pharmads (P = 0.02)." The authors
concluded that "the impact of advertising on publications" is real, and said
that "the ultimate impact of this bias on professional guidelines, health
care, and health policy is a matter of great public concern."
Indeed it is. Health care costs are rising and drug profits are enormous.
Canadian psychiatrist Abram Hoffer, M.D, Ph.D., says: "We all have to work
hard to educate the public about the merits of sane treatment for everyone,
where the patient is primary, not Big Pharma." Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D.,
of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, comments that "Positive reports about
the effects of high-dose vitamins have long been ignored by the medical
establishment instead of being further examined scientifically."
When patients ask about nutritional treatments, many a family physician has
replied, "I've never seen any studies supporting the safety or efficacy of
vitamin supplements in my professional journals. The research is simply not
there."
Sadly, they are right. And now we know why.
Major medical journals, their editors, and their authors appear to be on the
take. Harsh words? Perhaps, but only because the truth is harsh. "One the
take" refers to receiving cash in exchange for influence. It is naive to
assume that money does not corrupt. Promoting vested interests masquerading
as science is wrong and it must be stopped. At the very least, accepting
money carries an obligation to account for the source of that money. All
medical journals should be compelled to print a full disclosure in every
issue itemizing exactly how much money comes from exactly which sources.
Any medical journal that won't disclose has a reason to not disclose. And
that reason has nothing to do with public health. It's about private cash.
The cash that induces the journals to sway the doctors to persuade the
public.
If the medical journals deny this, let them prove it with full disclosure.
Now.
*References:*
(1) Kemper KJ, Hood KL. Does pharmaceutical advertising affect journal
publication about dietary supplements? BMC Complement Altern Med. 2008 Apr
9;8:11. Full text at
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/8/11
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=18400092
For years we have been advising our patients about the need to take supplements, and feel that organized medicine has let the patients of this country down. Medical Doctors, MD’s, are just that, pushers of pills. To read more look at: http://www.cent4dent.com/pdfs/vaccines_essayLong.pdf and be sure to look at the Floss or Die pages of www.cent4dent.com
City Workers Accidentally Dump Hydrochloric Acid into Ohio Water Supply Instead of Toxic Fluoride
February 4th, 2009 Comments Off….. Falling fluoride levels alerted water treatment officials to the problem, and they immediately issued an alert to tell people to stop drinking the water. The water system was then flushed by opening fire hydrants across the town to remove any trace of hydrochloric acid.
But here’s the hilarious part in all this: Hydrochloric acid is safer than fluoride! It’s the same acid used in your stomach to digest food, and at levels of a few parts per million, it’s absolutely harmless. The real poison in the water is the toxic fluoride being dumped into the water supply by ignorant city officials all around the world…..
Full article at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000716_fluoride_water_supply_accident.html
Read more on our site’s fluorosis page www.cent4dent.com
Autism epidemic not caused by shifts in diagnoses; environmental factors likely
February 4th, 2009 Comments OffChanges in doctors’ diagnoses cannot explain the sevenfold increase in autism since 1990, a new California study shows. Environmental factors are probably to blame. View the entire article: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/autism-and-environment
and visit the autism / mercury links page of our website: http://www.cent4dent.com/html/mercury_issues/vaccines.html