You will be exposed to some elemental Hg during the removal, how much depends on how good your dentist is at removal. Taking a lipoic acid chelator during this first three months post removal will increase the amount of this Hg ending up in your brain.
This next part is from my memory of Cutler's writings, I'm not sure how well I understood him or remember this: Some of the Hg exposure at the amalgam removal will enter your brain anyway but your body will act as a kind of filter for it. Taking a lipoic acid chelator before the Hg has time to settle into the organs of your body puts more of it into circulation thus increasing the amount entering the brain.
I do know that some Hg will be in circulation anyway and since it's in the elemental form will cross the BBB anyway. I'm also sure that you can reduce the amount of this Hg entering the by taking DMPS or DMSA during this 3 month time period. DMPS and DMSA are chelators that don't cross the BBB, so they would stay outside the brain chelating the Hg in your blood and preventing it from getting through the BBB and of course also causing it to be excreted in your urine, which will smell particularly good from all the thiols.
If I was you I would reschedule the removal and acquire some DMPS before you have the amalgam out. It a stronger chelator and has a better side effect profile than DMSA.
It's lucky you posted when you did because I came across your thread during research on antioxidant support for my future rounds of chelation. I've also found two new and much cheaper sources for DMPS and have perfected my antioxidant regimen, all of which I will detail later.
I will dig through some old boxes of books and see if I can find my copy of Cutler's Amalgam Illness, which I'd be happy to mail you if I can find it. It's $70 at amazon and $35 at his site I think.
Are you experiencing social anxiety? That's par if you're hg toxic, I became very avoidant for a decade or so before stumbling across Andy and figuring out what was wrong with me.
Sorry this has happened to you, btw.
Getting all the way better, rather than just somewhat or mostly, is going to take quite awhile and substantial effort. Understand that you've probably been functioning below your potential since childhood and that getting all the way better could really improve things for you. How I'm defining all the way better for myself is no harm from taking a gram or two of R-ALA in one dose per day for a week or two. To get there one needs to chelate all the Hg out of the brain and this can take time.
I would consider finding a dentist who has special training in minimizing your exposure to Hg during amalgam removal. Drilling it releases mercury and there are dentists trained to minimize your exposure. I happened to be close to one trained by Hal Huggins, the first dentist to speak out about amalgams and advocate safe removal. Will see if I can dig something up about how to find one. I think there's info about this in Andy's book.
Edited by niner, 18 March 2013 - 01:54 PM.