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Can Mercury Fillings Cause Depression? The Truth About Amalgam Fillings.

There is a strong link between getting mercury fillings and depression. If you do your research, you will find that high levels of mercury can be toxic to your body and brain. Many individuals that have gotten mercury dental fillings have noticed that they have become more irritable, depressed, anxious, and have suffered because of them. Although major changes in mood are certainly not plaguing everybody that has gotten mercury fillings, many people believe that these amalgam fillings were the sole cause of their depression and years spent in therapy trying to overcome their illness.

In some studies, over 25% of all individuals with mercury dental fillings had experienced mood swings and irritability. Mercury is a metal that is found naturally in the environment and exposure to it can lead to an onslaught of health issues including: anxiety, depression, memory loss, irritability, and low energy. The two primary sources of mercury toxicity are: eating fish with mercury in their tissue and/or from the amalgam dental fillings. Getting mercury poisoning from dental fillings is extremely more common than from eating contaminated fish.

Mercury fillings a.k.a. amalgam fillings and depression

Each filling contains about 1g of mercury. The way people can get mercury poisoning from these fillings is when it manages to leak from the filling into the body via vapor. It can also sometimes be swallowed as a liquid after it leaks out of the filling. Depending on the number of teeth you have had with mercury fillings may dictate how much poisoning you experience. On the other hand, you may only have a couple fillings, and if they leak, you may experience some major neurological problems.

Psychological symptoms of mercury poisoning include:

  • Anxiety
  • Memory loss
  • Mood swings
  • Depression
  • Anger (Rage)
  • Suicidal thoughts
  • Obsessive thinking
  • Insomnia
  • Irritability
  • Dizziness
  • Psychosis
  • Confusion

Mercury poisoning has also been linked to greater potential for developing things like migraine headaches, MS, epilepsy, cancer, as well as thyroid problems.

Common physical symptoms of mercury poisoning:

  • Hair loss
  • High blood pressure
  • Muscle aches
  • Muscle pain
  • Tremors
  • Metallic taste in mouth
  • Hormonal imbalances
  • Tingling
  • Muscle weakness
  • Tiredness

How do you know if mercury fillings are causing your depression? Think.

Simply take the time to think back as to when your depression started. Was it kind of around the same time that you got mercury fillings? Did any other major health problems occur at nearly the same time as well? There is no full-proof test to determine whether these amalgam fillings are causing your depression, but you should be able to think back for yourself as to when your depression first started. If it was in a timeframe close to when you got these fillings, I would certainly be concerned.

Here’s where things can get tricky. Even if the fillings were not the initial cause of your depression, they may have perpetuated your depression and made it deeper or worse than it should have been. Additionally, you do not know what kind of physical effects the mercury is having upon your body and brain over the long term.

What can you do if mercury fillings are causing depression?

1. Get them removed.

Perhaps the most common sense thing is to get the mercury fillings removed in hopes that your depression and mood will improve. If these are truly the culprit for causing your mental illness, you will want to make sure you get them taken out as soon as possible. The longer you leave them in, the greater the potential for damage.

2. Get them replaced.

Obviously if you get your mercury fillings removed, you are going to need a replacement. Most people that can afford it opt for white composite fillings because they look like natural teeth – there’s no discoloration. If you get your fillings removed and replaced, make sure your dentist is properly trained and knows what he is doing. If you have an inexperienced dentist remove your fillings, mercury may leak into your mouth and/or become hazardous. Always go with someone that has plenty of experience.

3. Urine mercury test.

If you want to know whether there is any mercury in your system, you can take a simple urinary test that will help determine how much mercury is in your body. I don’t know much about the test other than it’s pretty cheap and uses DMSA, a chelator – a substance that binds to mercury and that allows it to be excreted through urine. Should you take this type of test, the urine will be taken both before and after the chelator and will be compared to determine the approximate amount of mercury circulating throughout your body.

4. Chelation therapy.

If tests come back positive that you have mercury in your body, you will probably want to get rid of it as soon as possible. One method of removal is called chelation therapy – a type of therapy that has been helpful in removing heavy metals from the body. DMSA (dimercaptosuccinic acid) is used in cases of lead, arsenic, and mercury toxicity in the body. The only purpose of this therapy is to remove the heavy metals from your body. None of these products are available for chelation over-the-counter, so you would need to work with a professional if you are a candidate for this type of therapy.

When will you finally start feeling better after mercury fillings are removed?

There is no exact timeframe for recovery from depression following the removal of mercury fillings. It may take weeks or it may take months. Most people will start feeling a noticeable improvement within the first few months following the removal procedure. In some cases, people have reported feeling a significant improvement within the first few days following the removal of their mercury fillings. The speed of recovery totally depends on the person – there is no prediction that can be made with 100% accuracy.

If your depression, anxiety, and mood swings continue following removal, maybe it wasn’t the fillings that caused the problem in the first place. However, it is better to have the peace of mind knowing that you have them removed and that they aren’t contributing to the underlying problem of major depression. Continue to work with your doctor and treat your depression if it doesn’t improve following the removal of mercury fillings.

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15 thoughts on “Can Mercury Fillings Cause Depression? The Truth About Amalgam Fillings.”

  1. I cracked a tooth one day while eating and swallowed the amalgam filling accidentally. I had no problems with depression or anxiety at that point. Soon after, I began getting symptoms physically and mentally. I did not know what was happening and it was very scary. I twice accused the dentist of poisoning me. I thought it was coincidental, but after reading this report, it seems that I wasn’t imagining it after all. I will be making an appointment with the doctor immediately to discuss this with him.

    Reply
  2. Hi,back in 2009, I first got a dental filling because of a broken tooth. Looking back, that is around the time I first started having anxiety attacks. This filling popped out in around 2012, so I went in for another one. I was already suffering from severe anxiety disorder then, and I am to this day. Do you think it’s possible that this filling is causing my health problems?

    I kind of have a lot of the symptoms listed above. And they all first started in 2009. It was a stressful period, but this has been going on for years now. Meds tend to relieve some of the symptoms but they never really make things better. I suffer from severe hormonal imbalance. The fillings are white but I believe they contain toxic chemicals. I never realized these could be harmful to my wellbeing.

    I’d like to wait for it to pop out again and then never ever ask for another. If indeed these fillings are hazardous, do you think I will improve once the filling is gone? Thanks, Ken

    Reply
  3. I started feeling better within a day of having my amalgam fillings removed! My symptoms among other things consisted of depression, constant fatigue and tiredness, requiring lots of sleep, difficulty concentrating and comprehending, shyness, difficulty speaking, and weakness. For chelation I took DMSA, Alpha lipoid Acid, cilantro, Chlorella, in conjunction of vitamins and mineral supplements.

    I followed with the chelation until I stopped noticing any improvement in my symptoms which took a number of months. I have no doubt that damage has been done from my amalgam fillings which I received at the age of 13 from a clueless dentist. But regardless I feel much better – as if I got my life back.

    Reply
  4. I can promise the mercury from amalgam fillings causes depression. But having them all removed (and I had amalgam in every tooth including right down the canals of my root canals) only made a small improvement. It took me two years on a program to get the mercury out of the brain before my depression was cured. An unexpected outcome was that my osteoarthritis (which my doctor told me was moderately severe) was also completely cured after 2 years. The Andy Cutler protocol involving the use of alpha lipoic acid to get mercury out of the brain and body is the real deal and a very cheap treatment protocol. Unfortunately, its also very lengthy, but it is the real deal.

    Reply
    • Appreciate the insight Helena. Glad to hear about the major improvements in your osteoarthritis and that you have at least experienced some improvement in mood. Hopefully you continue to make progress. Thanks for sharing your experience.

      Reply
  5. Hi
    I can remember playing with liquid mercury in my hands at school when i was about 13 years old during a science lesson. I have suffered from anxiety and depression from the age of 14 or so on and off and i am now 54 years old. How can i find if there in any connection or treatment available ?

    Chris

    Reply
    • have a look at the Andy Cutler protocol and all his material. There is a yahoo group called “frequent dose chelation” that gives you all the information you need on this topic.

      Reply
  6. Thank you SO much for this article! I had my amalgam fillings put in when I was only a kid in primary school & the list you wrote – yeah, I’ve been experiencing ALL of those since then & have been going out of my mind (literally) due to them & trying to find a psychologist that can tell me what the heck is wrong with me! :-( And the metallic taste, I have that all the time too. I just can’t believe I’ve kept them in for this long :-(

    So, that said, my dentist is getting a call from me first thing tomorrow morning & I’m booking in to get them all taken out, asap. I’ve only got about 5, but I’m a highly sensitive person so I’m guessing that the mercury leaching out of these things is definitely a contributing factor to my depression, mood swings, suicidal thoughts, irritability, low energy, anger/rage & probably my Crohn’s Disease too!! Thank you so, so much!
    Lou <3

    Reply
    • No problem Louise, I hope the removal goes smooth and you get back on track! Yes the amalgam fillings are linked to all sorts of problems. Wishing you a quick recovery.

      Reply
  7. Hi, this is Scott Rossi.

    I lived for eight years of my life with chronic depression from 1993-2001. After seven years of it I came down with arthritis, though it was not Rheumatoid, but severe inflammation in all my joints after working in the frozen food department of a supermarket for four months, and I prayed to God that day till my shift was over for God to take my life. Instead the next day or so a miracle happened and I heard about the connection between mercury fillings and poor health. I then saw for the first time that I had 16 mercury dental fillings, and got my dentist to replace them all. Nothing happened at that point, but in January 2001 I began Oral Chelation therapy and after three straight months of it my depression was gone, and so was my stuttering and panic attacks, and so was my mercury poisoning.

    Sincerely,
    Scott Rossi.

    Sewell, New Jersey

    Reply
  8. Is it possible that tinnitus is also caused by the amalgam fillings? It seems that my tinnitus (ringing in one ear), and anxiety began after I had this filling about a month ago. When I expressed my concerns about not wanting this type of filling to my dentist, he claimed the filling was necessary to hold a bridge, and also that it was enclosed; meaning there was little or no chance of mercury leakage. What does the latest research say on the correlation between tinnitus and amalgam fillings. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Hey Beverly, I’m not sure. I’d talk to your doctor about this. This blog is geared mostly towards mental health and not physical. But I’d trust your intuition with this one and do what you can to resolve the problem. If you think the tinnitus was caused by your filling, you’re probably right.

      Reply
    • Hi Beverly, I had my amalgam fillings removed 7 years ago and my anxiety completely vanished. I later realized that it had started when I was ten years old and had gotten nine cavities filled with amalgam. I also have tinnitus that started about 20 years ago and although it’s lessened since the amalgam filling removal it’s still there.

      I do a heavy metal detox and have not succumbed to the chelation therapy. I feel it is way to aggressive and too much like chemo, oh I’m also a cancer survivor. My advice to you would be to find a good holistic dentist who will remove the amalgam AFTER draping the tooth and get the amalgam out of your body while you are doing a good heavy metal detox. Best of luck to you.

      Reply
      • Hi Barbara, I, too, had a similar experience with my anxiety diminishing greatly after getting my amalgams removed. My challenge now is getting over the anger that I feel towards the ADA for allowing amalgams to even still exist. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and put on a dozen or more different psychotropic drugs over the course of decade (one of which made me suicidal to the point that I tried to take my own life and was then forced to stay at psych. hospital where ECT was forced upon me).

        The long and short of it is that I went through all of this because of the affects mercury from my amalgams were having on me. The fact that you have survived amalgam toxicity and cancer is incredible! What has helped you stay strong and overcome it all?

        Reply

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