I had silver fillings most of my life. I thought they were safe. But nobody told me they were 50% mercury.

For years I felt slow. Exhausted no matter how much I slept. I first really noticed it in college — working full time and going to school full time. I told myself it was burnout. I told myself that's just what adulting felt like.

I normalized it completely. It wasn't burnout. It was my body quietly fighting a constant heavy metal exposure — one that had been sitting in my mouth for years.

What Are Amalgam Fillings, Actually?

Those "silver" fillings your dentist gave you as a kid? They're not silver. They're approximately 50% mercury, mixed with silver, tin, and copper.

Mercury vapor is continuously released from these fillings — and it doesn't just stay in your mouth. Research shows it passes directly through the blood-brain barrier, where it can accumulate in brain tissue. The half-life of inorganic mercury in the brain is estimated to be years — not days, not weeks. Years.

Most conventional dentists have been placing these in people's mouths for over 150 years and calling them safe. Meanwhile, over 150 countries have signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury — an international treaty specifically aimed at phasing out dental amalgam because of environmental and health concerns.

Draw your own conclusions.

The Part That Pushed Me Over the Edge

I could have kept living with the brain fog. I had normalized it so completely that I didn't even know it was there anymore — it was just life.

But here's what I couldn't ignore:

When you're pregnant, your body detoxes heavy metals directly into the placenta.

That means even if you're doing everything right — clean food, filtered water, no unnecessary exposures, skipping vaccines — if you have mercury fillings, there is still a direct pathway for heavy metal contamination to your baby. Before they ever take their first breath.

That was a hard no for me.

Safe Removal — Why It Matters

This is where most people get it wrong. You can't just walk into any dentist and say "take them out." If amalgam removal isn't done correctly, you actually spike your mercury exposure during the removal process — breathing in vapors that are released when the fillings are drilled out.

Safe removal requires a specific protocol:

• Rubber dams to prevent swallowing debris

• Sectioning the filling into chunks rather than grinding

• High-volume evacuation to capture vapors

• Supplemental oxygen in some cases

• Proper detox support before and after

I had my amalgam fillings safely removed at BioSmiles in Eagle, Idaho, under the care of Dr. Sam Petersen — a biological dentist who uses exactly this kind of protocol. He's fluoride-free, mercury-free, and treats dentistry as what it actually is: a whole-body health issue.

What Changed After Removal

The brain fog I had normalized for years lifted.

I didn't know how heavy that weight was until it was gone. The slowness, the exhaustion that didn't match how much I slept, the feeling of operating under a cloud — it cleared.

I'm not going to sit here and promise you that removing your fillings will fix everything. Bodies are complicated. But I will tell you that for me, the change was real and noticeable — and I wish someone had told me about this years ago.

What to Do If This Resonates With You

If you've had silver fillings most of your life and you've been dealing with brain fog, unexplained fatigue, or just a feeling of never quite being sharp — I'd encourage you to look into biological dentistry.

Ask about:

• Safe amalgam removal protocol — make sure they follow one

• Biocompatibility testing — to see how your body responds to different dental materials

• What support you need during and after removal — detox matters

If you're in the Treasure Valley, I can't recommend BioSmiles enough. Dr. Sam Petersen is the real deal.

📍 BioSmiles — Eagle, Idaho | @theboisenaturaldentist

This is part of my ongoing dental health series. Next up: what cavitations are, why most dentists miss them, and what happened when I had cavitation surgery on my wisdom teeth.

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice. This is my personal experience. Always do your own research and consult a qualified healthcare provider.