Dear Meg,
I have some suggestions that may answer your questions about whether your
father's dental-caps (metal) may be contributing to his PD. But first, let
me clarify that I am not a medical professional, and so what I write here
should not be taken as medical advice. (Boy, these disclaimers!)
From what I've read during my internet-info-searching over recent years --
plus from seeing what others have written here in the PD Digest -- there
seems to be powerful evidence that silver-mercury dental amalgams can be
destructive to the central nervous system and, according to some accounts,
perhaps induce PD-like symptoms or actual PD problems. I recognize that in
your post, you weren't referring to amalgams but to metal dental caps &
the adhesive used for those caps, but maybe the amalgam-info can offer a
possible clue to whether the metal caps themselves can provoke a similar
danger.
There is loads of info about the dangers of silver-mercury amalgams on the
internet. Simply do a search, via a search-engine such as EXCITE or
INFOSEEK or ALTA-VISTA, on, for example,
(tooth or teeth) and (amalgams or fillings)
or
"(silver or mercury) amalgams"
or some similar combination, and you'll turn up more info than you'd ever
want. Bottom line: While much of the American dental profession says this
info is hokum, there is a huge body of evidence that the mercury in the
amalgams does indeed continuously leech into the body, year after year,
where it is progressively more and more destructive to the Central Nervous
System and thus contributes to a variety of severe CNS problems.
As to the continuing bad taste that the caps (or cap/adhesive
combination) have been causing for 5 years now, I would suspect that the
metal of the caps -- in the presence of saliva -- perhaps is continuing to
ionize (= a basic electrical reaction, in which the saliva is the
electrolyte and the caps are the electrodes with a positive or negative
charge, and the mouth generally serves as an electrode of the opposite
charge), and that the ions of the metal are perhaps thus not only causing
this taste but also being absorbed through the gums and under-tongue area
and into the system...and thence into the CNS, including the brain. *If*
this is so, I would suspect the metal caps as being a potential contributor
to the PD-like symptoms that you wrote about.
I would *assume* that the choice (made by the dental profession) of
type of metal for the caps was in part made on the basis that this metal
would be inert (i.e., not ionize or leech) in the presence of saliva.
However, perhaps the pH (acid/base) level of your father's saliva is *not*
at the non-reactive pH level that this metal would need in order to not
leech. Perhaps this can be checked out. Maybe another dentist can offer a
test; or maybe you can contact a chemist, or a testing-lab, and ask them
about all this and about what tests they can run to see if the caps are
indeed ionizing and leeching.
I suspect too that if you contact a good holisitic nutritionist, he/she
will immediately tell you to get rid of those metal caps. But there's an
idea too -- why not find & ask a good holistic nutritionist?
Could your dad's symptoms also be contributed to by any silver-mercury
fillings? That's another avenue to explore. (Note: I've read that some
dental professionals say that this "amalgam scare" is a scam that's purely
designed to fill the wallets of dentists who profit from the arduous and
exntensive filling-removal-&-replacement process. But keep inn mind too
that in Sweden -- and perhaps 1 or 2 other European nations -- the use of
silver-mercury amalgams for fillings has been outlawed for
health-reasons.)
As to his experiences in the petroleum industry: I can't say for sure but
I would also suspect that long-term exposure to petrochemicals certainly
could not be considered as healthful. There has been much discussion about
this sort of thing -- i.e., exposure to toxic chemicals -- on this PD
Listserv; perhaps others can respond in more detail to this aspect.
I might also add this: I understand that there are a variety of good
techniques (including nutritional or herbal supplements etcetera) for
*detoxifying* the body -- i.e., expelling all those toxic metals and so on
-- and perhaps you should look into this approach. There are books on it,
you can also consult with (for example) some good health-stores (such as
General Nutrition Centewrs of Vitamin Shoppes, both of which have
800-numbers), or consult with a good nutritionist.
Good luck.
-- SJS
6/15/98
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