* Increasing numbers of dentists are raising concerns about the toxicity of mercury fillings -- and having their careers destroyed as a result.

* Story by Aaron Brown - July 30, 1996

"Patients thus cannot consent to the removal of their amalgams based on concerns about mercury toxicity."

- From a Colorado Administrative Law Judge ruling against ex-dentist Hal Huggins.

He sounds exhausted, defeated even. A taint of bitterness permeates his words. "They have stopped Huggins," he says, referring to himself in the third person. And indeed they have. His license stripped, his practice closed, Colorado Springs ex-dentist Hal Huggins is giving up. What will he do next? "I don't know, go on welfare I guess," he says.

While it's unlikely Huggins will be out begging for spare change any time soon, the revocation of his license on May 1 by the Colorado Board of Dental Examiners has ended a career of more than 30 years. That career, by the accounts of many of his patients, saved lives. That career was also one of the most controversial in the history of dentistry .

At the root of the controversy lie Huggins' passionately held beliefs that silver fillings or dental amalgam, which contain more than 50 percent mercury, should be eradicated. Following these beliefs, Huggins has conducted years of research, spoken out against mercury extensively and built a practice that operated far beyond the boundaries of traditional dentistry. He promised patients with incurable diseases, like multiple sclerosis, that removing their mercury fillings would cure them. The state board contends that revoking Huggins' license had little to do with his beliefs and everything to do with the style of his practice, but Huggins and many who share his beliefs feel that politics played a large part.

To some theorists, Huggins is only one of several anti-mercury crusaders who are victims of a modern-day witch hunt. The trouble with mercury In 1979, six years after Huggins began challenging the use of mercury, published studies showed that mercury vapor escapes from the silver fillings in people's mouths. Since most of the world population has silver fillings and since mercury is the most toxic, non-radioactive substance known to man, safety concerns began to arise.

The American Dental Association, which had previously espoused the conviction that mercury could not escape fillings, reasserted that amalgam was safe. They also declared it unethical for dentists to suggest that patients have serviceable amalgams removed. Despite this effort on the ADA's part some dentists and scientists began protesting the use of mercury. A new survey has estimated that 8 percent of American dentists are "mercury-free" in their practices and 23 percent have concerns about mercury.

Overseas, Germany, Austria, Sweden and Denmark are all phasing out or have already banned the use of mercury in dentistry, and the University of Zurich in Switzerland has dropped the teaching of amalgam placement from its curriculum, maintaining that there are superior alternatives. The Canadian Dental Association will likely vote to change its policy on amalgam at its August board of governors meeting. The new policy, advanced in the July issue of the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association and by the Canadian Dental Association's President James Brookfield, should "reflect the current scientific consensus that mercury may cross the placenta, and that total mercury from all sources may pose problems for individuals with neurological disorders or impaired kidney function."

Sam Queen, an investigator in Colorado Springs who has examined the mercury issue for 15 years, believes that the policy change comes only as an attempt by the Canadian Dental Association to protect itself when Health Canada (the administrator of Canada's socialized health care system) changes its policy on amalgam. According to Queen, Health Canada's new policy is expected to recommend and pay for amalgam removal in patients with renal, neurological and immunological disorders. Health Canada's policy would reflect a loss of faith in the Canadian Dental Association's ceaseless support of amalgam. Despite the global and national response, the ADA still contends that dental amalgam is "safe, durable, and affordable," according to a Colorado Dental Association statement. While no one questions that amalgam is the most affordable form of filling available, anti-mercury partisans oppose the assertion that it is safe or durable.

In his book How to Save Your Teeth, International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology president Dr. David Kennedy points to various findings from animal and cadaver studies that mercury accumulates in "just about every vital tissue," and that the largest source of that accumulation is from silver fillings. Kennedy further points out that the World Health Organization in 1991 "concluded that there is no totally safe level of mercury in the human body."

Since the EPA has long declared that mercury and other substances contained in amalgam are toxic waste when it comes to disposal, and, since dentists are warned about the high levels of toxicity of amalgam in handling the filling, many mercury-free activists wonder why amalgam is assumed safe when it is in closest contact to the human body -- inside the mouth. As proof of the safety of amalgam, the ADA cites the many millions of people who have led and are leading healthy lives despite their numerous fillings.

Also make sure to read these books: Poison in Your Teeth: Mercury Amalgam (Silver) Fillings...Hazardous to Your Health! and Mercury Detoxification by Tom McGuire