Can Amalgam Cause Anti-Biotic Resistant 'Superbugs'?
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This article is from the Dental Amalgam FAQ, by anonymous.
Can Amalgam Cause Anti-Biotic Resistant 'Superbugs'?
The following article by Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent,
appeared in The Sunday Telegraph (Main Section) 14 September 1997,
Page 17.
Headline: "Filling and drilling 'breeds superbugs'"
The fashion among dentists for "drilling and filling" with
mercury amalgam in the Seventies may have spawned dangerous
superbugs immune to antibiotics, say leading microbiologists.
They are studying samples taken from thousands of patients to
discover the extent of the problem, and say mercury fillings
may have to be discontinued if the threat is confirmed.
The dental trend for drilling out decayed parts of teeth and
filling them with mercury amalgam reached its peak in the late
Seventies, with more than 32 million fillings being made in
1977.
With the advent of wide spread fluoridation, this has dropped
at least 50 percent. Most concern over fillings has so far
focused on the potential dangers from mercury poisoning, with
some countries banning their use. Now a team led by Professor
Rohn Rowbury of University College, London believes that the
fillings may have helped trigger antibiotic resistance in
bacteria -- widely seen as one of the most serious threats
facing modern medicine.
These so-called superbugs include streptococci, responsible for
bacterial pneumonia and meningitis, some types of mycobacteria,
which causes TB, and staphylococcus, a cause of lethal septic
shock. Such superbugs have become immune to treatment using
many common antibiotics such as penicillin, and doctors fear
it may only be a matter of time before all treatments fail
against them.
The numbers of superbugs is rising, as bacteria pass on their
antibiotic resistance to others. The link with dental fillings
comes from the fact that genes giving bacteria antibiotic
resistance are often on the same part of the bacterial genetic
blueprint as those for resistance to lethal heavy metals --
including mercury.
As a result bacteria that survive the relatively high levels of
mercury in the mouth are also likely to become resistant to
antibiotics. Prof Rowbury said: "If there is an association
between the use of mercury amalgams and antibiotic resistance,
then the implications are enormous."
According to Prof Rowbury, one immediate effect would be that
dentists would have fewer antibiotics capable of fighting
mouth infections. But he said there could be more serious
effects. "Some oral bacteria can have very serious effects,
such as endocarditis, which affects the heart," he said.
"The ingress of resistant bacteria into the gut may also
result in the spread of antibiotic resistance to the
normal gut microflora." So far, only animal studies of
the link between fillings and antibiotic resistance have
been carried out. Theses have, however, confirmed that more
fillings increase the prevalence of antibiotic resistant
bacteria.
Prof Rowbury and colleagues at the Eastman Dental Institute in
London have begun the first human studies. "If an association
between dental amalgam and antibiotic resistance in bacteria
is established, then it may be necessary to prevent or limit
the use of dental amalgam. "We are now studying 6,000 isolates
taken from patients over a wide range of ages whose mercury
levels we know. What we plan to is to see if there is a link
between those levels and both the antibiotic resistance and
virulence of bacteria in the isolates."
Photograph shows infant recieving a filling. Subtitle says:-
"Open wide: microbiologists fear fillings may help trigger
antibiotic resistance in bacteria - seen as one of the most
serious threats facing modern medicine."
(The Sunday Telegraph is a major UK National Paper, with
a readership of 2,400,000)
This is not the first piece of research to indicate this
link. This is an extract from an article by Toxicologist
Dr M Vimy..
"In a recent collaborative paper between three North American
universities, it was demonstrated in a primate model that oral
and intestinal bacteria (eg. streptococci, enterococci,
enterobacteriaceae) exhibit a significant increase in mercury
and antibiotic resistance within two weeks following mercury
filling placement.[39] The mercury resistant bacterial species
exhibited resistance to various antibiotics such as, ampicillin,
tetracyclines, streptomycin, kanamycin, erythromycin, and
chloramphenicol, which they had not demonstrated prior to
placement.. This is the first direct experimental confirmation
of a non-antibiotic factor, mercury, producing antibiotic
resistance. This occurs because in some bacteria mercury-
resistance and antibiotic-resistance are encoded adjacent small
genetic sites within plasmids. [40] When exposed to environmental
mercury, this genetic material is activated to protect the bacteria
from the lethal mercury. The plasmid is also replicated and passed
on to other bacteria, insuring species survival. In so doing, the
antibiotic resistance also spreads to the other bacteria. Antibiotic
resistance is a important issue in medicine today. [41] It has
been estimated that 80% of mercury-resistant bacterial strains
also show an increased resistance to one or more conventional
antibiotics. Thirty percent of all hospitalized patients in North
America receive antibiotic therapy [42] and antibiotics compromise
10% of the total $5.1 billion drug sales in Canada during 1992.
[43] Moreover, ten of the top 20 generic drugs prescribed during
1990 in the U.S.A. were antibiotics. [44] Yet, antibiotics appear
to be losing their clinical potency and stronger antibiotic medications
at increasing dosages are necessary to combat many common infections.[41]"
Bibliography:
39. Summers, A.O., Wireman, J., Vimy, M.J., Lorscheider, F.L., Marshall, B., Levy, S.B., Bennett, S. and Billard, L., Antimicrob. Agents & Chemother., 1993, 37, 825-834.
40. Gilbert, M.P. and Summers, A.O., Plasmid, 1988, 20: 127-136.
41. Cohen, M.L., Science, 1992, 257, 1050-1055.
42. Gilman, H.G., Rall, T.W., Nies, A.S. and Taylor, P. Goodman and Gilman's: The Pharmacologic Basis of Therapeutics, 8th ed., Pergamon Press, Elmsford, New York, 1990, p. 1018.
43. Intercontinental Medical Statistics, IMS, Canada, 1992.
44. Pharmacy Times, April 1991, 58.
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
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