Replacing amalgam (while BFing) & curing my cavities- *HELP* - Page 2

[changingseasons]

Just found this old thread, and I'm slowly making my way through it. Looks like Jane had all her amalgams replaced while BFing. Hope she comes by to chime in.

[mamafish9]

The thing dentists don't tell you is that fillings have a limited life span. If yours have lasted 10 years, they're actually doing fairly well. (In kids, the average life span is 2!!!!!!! years, which no one mentioned when DD had some cavities).

If it were me, I would totally go with trying to heal them naturally - if I weren't trying to TTC, and had less diet restrictions. The deal is, untreated decay in teeth can impact pregnancy - and having a tooth abscess/infect/need a root canal during pregnancy would be a bigger deal for me than having new fillings now.

We are trying a lot of tooth healing for DD (who inherited my crappy teeth and has a mouth full of cavities), but the risk to waiting isn't a big deal for her - if a tooth gets sensitive, we'll consider our options at that point. I think that if you want to get pg again though, that might alter the potential downside to "watch and wait and try to heal".

I agree with Tanya - I think nursing pulls nutrients. I think pg pulls nutrients. And I think healing teeth in that context is tricky enough, never mind with the restrictions you have. So I guess my thinking is that new fillings would be the lesser of the two evils (vs. having serious tooth issues while pg). But I'm also feeling a bit overwhelmed in my life right now, so I may well be passing that feeling onto all the answers I share .

[farmerjess]

This is an odd suggestion from someone who doesn't know much, but I have a bad cavity that I am ignoring now. It was hurting but now it's not. The thing that helps it feel the best is nettles infusion. If I drink it everyday, I don't have any pain. I think it has to do with the mouth ph thing, but I am not sure. My mouth just feels cleaner when I drink it. I try to drink sips all through the day because I think it contributes to a healthy mouth environment.

Can you guys do nettles?

[changingseasons]

That's interesting. I was putting nettle into my tea every morning, but of course I've stopped drinking tea since learning that hot liquids are bad. I should start doing infusions again- I never really liked the taste though, which is why I started putting it in my tea (mixed with other teas/herbs).

[WuWei]

My understanding is that the surface area is the mercury vapor exposure. For instance, I have 10 amalgam fillings but more surface area than that because some fillings are between teeth additionally; and one (two?) has an external (side of tooth) surface in addition to the chewing surface. So, maybe 14 surface areas for vapor exposure. Each hot liquid exposure increases the mercury vapor exposure, unfortunately.

Removing the mercury filling in chunks *sounds* like a good idea. But, you still have to drill out the area around the tooth (loosing good tooth material) or vaporize the mercury out directly (leaving as much good tooth intact as possible). Filling the others with non-BPA composite is no biggie, if you aren't disturbing any amalgam, imo.

Future root canals are useless, from everything I've read, it is impossible to clean all the bacteria from the tubules and they pretty consistently always reinfect. So, I'd not sign up for any root canals regardless, as they are big infection risks, imo. A bit of surface gum/tooth abscess doesn't really bother me (it can heal itself), as much as an anaerobic root canal infection festering under a filling. Ten new cavities is quite impressive; shocking, actually.

With baby teeth, as opposed to adult teeth, I'm not so worried about waiting to heal a cavity, or allowing it be replace naturally.

From my understanding, one of the "benefits" of amalgam is that the heavy metal retards bacterial growth at the surface exposure (ie. the inside of the tooth cavitation where the amalgam is installed is exposed to the metal). But, you were told there is no cavity there? Odd dental care.

Ozone treatments are terrific for sterilizing teeth, from everything I've heard. Adults are much easier to have effective ozone treatments than kids. I'd do ozone for the "10 cavities", personally. (not to the amalgam)

The key is the ph of the saliva, which means minerals to alkalize. Aren't you avoiding some veggies which have calcium due to oxalates? I just saw a note from Body Ecology about cooking greens to lessen the oxalates, but it retains the calcium.

I would not remove an amalgam while nursing, nor within 6 (12-18) months of ttc, minimum. I'd also wait between nursing and ttc to replenish my nutrient stores for the fetal development needs (at least a year?). I wouldn't want to intentionally grow a baby when my body was depleted of minerals. Did you see that Epigenetics YouTube? It was fascinating how the nutrients alter the DNA of the mother and the baby gets 1/2 of those altered DNA. When there are nutrient deficiencies, the DNA are altered and the baby gets 1/2 of those altered DNA. Nutrients (deficiencies or supply, especially methylation) alter the DNA, bottom line.

But, "we all turned out fine". My mom probably had amalgams done while pregnant, as I know she had continuous teeth issues from pregnancy on. And smoked and was poor and took pharmaceutical prescriptions for morning sickness, etc. etc.

Whatever you do, it'll be fine. Life is not perfection, that doesn't exist except in artificial environments such as a laboratory or school.

I guess, I'd pull the amalgam tooth (if it hurt) or leave it alone, loose and creating vapor. But, I would not remove it. I'm not sure I'd try to pack it with a temporary filling/clay, as that could increase decay risk, I imagine.

And no hydorgen peroxide mouth swish (for cleaning) with amalgams in. There are xylitol mouth washes though.

Whole food probiotics.


Pat

[farmerjess]

Originally Posted by changingseasons

That's interesting. I was putting nettle into my tea every morning, but of course I've stopped drinking tea since learning that hot liquids are bad. I should start doing infusions again- I never really liked the taste though, which is why I started putting it in my tea (mixed with other teas/herbs).

Not sure if you've tried it this way, but nettles are pretty good salty. You could try the infusion salty and lukewarm. The amount you'd put into a tea probably wouldn't make much difference nutritionally. You need the infusion strength.