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Smoking Teeth Doesn’t Get You High

May 28, 2007 By 8 Comments

Do Burning Teeth Release Poison Mercury Gas?

Ah, YouTube… what else could possibly be worth $1.65 billion? Any adolescent can tell you that you can find anything —anything — on YouTube. There are a few real gems out there, along with a whole lot of duds. After the controversy over our amalgam survey (one man told me that “any dentist who places amalgam fillings is a MURDERER”), I’m just going to let you decide how to categorize the following video.

Smoking Teeth = Poison Gas is a production of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT). The alarming video shows a recently-extracted tooth with an amalgam filling, dipped in water and heated to body temperature. Mercury vapors can be seen escaping against the phosphorescent background.

“All mercury silver fillings leak substantial amounts of mercury constantly. The amount increases with any kind of stimulation,” declares the video. Even more vapor is released when the tooth is heated to “coffee temperature,” rubbed to simulate general dental care, and scraped to simulate drilling. The 10-minute video goes on to discuss research in sheep and monkeys, and it touches on the possibility of passing on toxic mercury to one’s unborn children.

The IAOMT claims that this “dramatic video of mercury vapor outgassing from an amalgam dental filling has outraged the world since it was first demonstrated in 1995.” Indeed, a number of alarmed YouTube viewers announced their intention to immediately have all their amalgam fillings removed.

But not everybody’s so quick to believe. A skeptical viewer wonders why the so-called “mercury” vapor rises when mercury is heavier than air; in fact, one doctor has posted his “proof” of why the video’s a sham: He claims we’re not seeing mercury vapor at all, merely water.

What do you think of this controversial video? Post your comments below!

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About Julie Frey

Julie Frey is the Editor of TheWealthyDentist.com blog. She has dedicated her career to Internet marketing and communications, working side-by-side with dental marketing guru Jim Du Molin since 2006. She has a degree in Linguistics from Stanford University, has a passion for language and writing, and lives in San Francisco. Julie Frey+

  • random surfer

    If water vapor were visible, it would be streaming off his hand.

    We don’t live in a still pond of air. We live in a world where air currents are swirling all around us.

    Other similar mercury videos that have nothing to do with teeth also show plenty of rising vapor.

    I think this “debunk” has been debunked.

  • Todd in Cali

    Actually, I’ve experimented with my own extracted amalgams, and the mercury that leaches from them is not trivial.

    What really irritates me is how DISHONEST dentists are on the subject. The ADA has gone to great lengths to LIE to the public and rename mercury-amalgams to “silver-amalgams” – which is fraud in most states, lying about what’s IN a product.

    The ADA has been so aggressive about “debunking” the whole mercury issue that Maine had to pass a law to force dentists to admit that amalgam fillings actually DO contain mercury.

    Dentists are not toxicologists, nor are they free to tell you the hazards of the mercury they put into patients – the ADA forbids it.

    There’s a LOT dentists don’t tell you – they are NOT serving the patients interests as much as their own and the ADA’s.

    Shame on them !

  • Kermit Frogsquire

    Can you see he phosphorescent screen through the mans hand, or the tooth? No they cast shadows. Everyone knows that when you heat water you get steam – and steam is a mixture of water vapour and water mist as it re-condenses. And everyone knows that steam is visible to the naked eye, such that it also casts a shadow – vis a vis it will cast a shadow on the phosphorescent screen.

    Furthermore in order for mercury to rise from the tooth, as per Boyles Law, the Mercury atoms would have to be at 1600 degrees C. Whilst it is possible to create a low partial pressure of mercury vapour with that kind of energy by bombarding a liquid or solid amalgam sample with highly ionising radiation – that is not what happens in the mouth so people do not have “smoking teeth”.

    The thing for people to understand is that shining a 254nm wavelength light on mercury is similar to bombarding a droplet of water in a microwave oven. Mercury absorbs 254nm light, and is heated just as water absorbs certain frequencies of microwaves. Since UV light at 254nm is much higher energy than the much longer wave length of microwaves at 0.12meters – energy is inversely proportional to wavelength – putting mercury in a short wave UV light is rather like putting water in a billion watt microwave oven. Yes it is going to steam!

    But regardless as I said above – whether we are seeing shadows cast by water droplets in the air (which will cast a shadow because they are polar) or whether it is mercury at 1600 degree C caused by bombarding it with high power UV – it doesn’t really matter. Either way the experiment is nonsense.

  • Kermit Frogsquire

    PS

    To do the experiemnt properly a tooth would be put in a container and left for a week, month, whatever. The tooth would then be removed keeping the conatiner contents sealed and then just the gases in the container would be subject to UV atomoic absorption – but I guarantee you that absolutely nothing would be seen because liquid mercury evapourates at 195,000 times slower than water. If it takes a day for a tiny drop of water to evapourate (and we can all time this at home) it would take 534 years for the same drop of mercury to evapourate. And amalgam vapourises many magnitudes of times slower than that. So basically dont put a billion watt microwave oven in your mouth and vapourize your fillings!

  • mrfixit123

    Kermit you are entirely wrong. Mercury does vaporize regardless of weight. Watch this video: http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,1607,7-132-2945_5105_47868-181553–,00.html

  • Kermit frogsquire

    Mr Fixit, just look up any text books on vapour pressures. These experiemnets have been done countless times. The partical pressure for mercury in amalgam is essentially 0! The partical pressure of amalgam mercury subjected to vigorous abrasion is still in the nano grams. (15 micro grams per cubic meter)

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9758031

    It’s all very well posting bogus videos, but please don’t try and mislead people, it is quite honestly disgraceful behaviour.

  • Kermit frogsquire

    PS please read what I posted above – Short wave UV light will vapourize mercury, because it cooks mercury!

  • http://www.insightsfordentists.com Dental Marketing Options

    Everything is on YouTube.
    Do we have any conclusive results on whether or not Amalgam fillings are truly safe?

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