Daily Local News
By Freya Koss, Guest Columnist
February 4, 2004
Freya Koss, Director of Development for Consumers for Dental Choice, wasn't smiling at the Give a Kid a Smile Day's program at the Community in Volunteers Clinic, West Chester, PA, where disadvantaged Hispanic children are treated with MERCURY fillings. Dr. Himmelberger, an administrator of the dental program says amalgam fillings are safe. (see: Dr. Himmelberger's response calling Koss "Chicken Little")
Underserved children in the greater West Chester area will receive free dental care on Friday as part of the American Dental Association's (ADA) national initiative, Give a Kid a Smile Day, now in its second year. This program is an outgrowth of the Surgeon General's report acknowledging an epidemic of oral disease, particularly among disadvantaged children.
Not smiling about this event is Consumers for Dental Choice, a national non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the rights of dental consumers.
Children from the ages of 2 to 12 will be bused from public schools and state-funded programs such as Head Start to subsidized clinics for a one-day swoop of drill and fill. In West Chester, Community Volunteers in Medicine will treat approximately 80 children with over 60 percent from minority communities.
Although this clinic does a commendable job serving the working poor year-round, Consumers for Dental Choice was outraged to learn that some of the dental fillings to be used contain mercury, a known neurotoxin. Deceptively called "silver" fillings by the American and Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania dental associations, these fillings contain mercury, the second-most toxic non-radioactive element on the face of this earth besides plutonium.
Supportive of Consumers for Dental Choice's goals are the World Health Organization's 1991 report concluding that the primary source of mercury for the general population is exposure from dental amalgam, and the 1999 Toxicological Profile for Mercury by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry indicating that children may have greater exposure and greater risks from mercury.
Contrary to these reports, the American and Pennsylvania dental associations stand by their position that mercury fillings are safe. In truth, mercury amalgams have never been classified nor have they been tested for safety or efficacy by the Food & Drug Administration. Shockingly, in its Feb. 20, 2002 Consumer Report, it was reported that the Food and Drug Administration had "inadvertently" forgotten to classify the pre-encapsulated amalgam, in use for more than 30 years.
Negligently, the dental and medical communities do not acknowledge the significant neurological and neurobehavioral health risks associated with prenatal exposure to methylmercury leaching from a pregnant woman's amalgam fillings. As evidenced in the ATSDR report, "Methylmercury in the blood of a pregnant woman will easily move into the blood of the developing child and then into the child's brain and other tissues "and remains in the brain for a long time." Childhood illnesses linked to these symptoms are at epidemic levels such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism.
It is ludicrous that these dental associations continue to advocate the use of mercury in dentistry, particularly in the vulnerable population of children, and even more so in treatment of the poor.
Although the American Dental Association claims that the amount of mercury leaching from these fillings is minute, it's risky business treating children with a material deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a poison before it's placed and a hazardous waste when discarded. How can a product being eliminated from thermometers, vaccines, food, car switches and blood pressure machines be considered safe in the mouth?
Consumers for Dental Choices wants to make the public aware of this gross inequity to humankind. Patients of every socioeconomic status deserve to know the truth about dental materials and procedures, and to be given choice. This dollars-and-cents approach is quite contrary to the Pennsylvania Dental Patient Bill of Rights adopted by the PDA in 1998 which includes:
"You have a right to ask about treatment alternatives and be told, in language you can understand the advantages and disadvantages of each. You have a right to ask your dentists to explain all the treatment options, regardless of cost."
The writer, of Wynnewood, is development director of Consumers for Dental Choice. She is a self-described survivor of mercury poisoning from dental fillings. She reports that in 1996, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, lupus and myasthenia gravis seven days after having an amalgam mercury filling drilled out and replaced with a new one. Six years later, after amalgam removal, she has regained her health and offers guidance to those who feel that their illnesses may be caused by mercury dental fillings, and lobbies for informed consent and abolishment of mercury in dentistry.
©Daily Local News 2004
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