Re: Migration of mercury from dental amalgam through human teeth.

[Guest guest]

I havn't really heard anything about the possibility of the mercury

from a mother's fillings being passed along to her baby as a possible

cause of autism. I have a mouth full of silver filings, many of

which were put in when I was very young (5 - 10 years old probably).

I gave birth to my son when I was 35 yrs. (I'm 42 now) and some of my

fillings are now having to be replaced they are so old and falling

apart. My son (who is pretty high functioning) was born 3 mos.

premature and weighed 2 lbs. 11 oz. when born. I've always suspected

he was autistic " from birth " because I don't remember any significant

milestones and then regression. And I've often wondered if the

mercury from my fillings was the trigger that started everything.

>

> Thnx to TG for finding, sharing this item:

>

> J Synchrotron Radiat. 2008 Mar;15(Pt 2):123-8. Epub 2008 Feb 19.

>

> Migration of mercury from dental amalgam through human teeth.

>

> HH, Vogt S, Eastgate H, Legnini DG, Hornberger B, Cai Z, Lai

B,

> Lay PA.

> School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

>

> Exposure to mercury from dental amalgams, with possible negative

health

> effects, has generally been considered to occur via either erosion

or

> evaporation directly from the surface of fillings, followed by

> ingestion. The aim of this study was to determine the relative

> importance of the direct migration of mercury through the tooth as

an

> alternative exposure pathway. X-ray fluorescence imaging has been

used

> to determine quantitatively the spatial distribution of Hg, Ca, Zn

and

> Cu in sections of human teeth that had been filled with amalgam for

more

> than 20 years. X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) was

also

> employed to gain chemical information on the mercury present in the

> teeth. Hg (up to approximately 10 mg g(-1)) and Zn (>100 mg g(-1))

were

> detected in the teeth several millimetres from the location of the

> amalgams. At high resolution, Hg showed higher concentrations in

> dentinal tubules while Zn was generally evenly distributed. XANES

showed

> that the chemical form of Hg that had migrated into the tooth had

been

> altered from that present in the amalgam. The differing spatial

> distributions of Hg and Zn suggest distinct transport mechanisms

for the

> two metals, presumably chemical for Zn and initially physical for

Hg.

> Subsequent oxidation of Hg may lead to a loss of mobility or the

> development of a secondary transport mechanism. Most importantly

the

> detection of Hg in areas of the tooth that once contained an active

> bloodstream and in calculus indicates that both exposure pathways

should

> be considered as significant.

>

> PMID: 18296776

>