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Treatment of Health Complaints Attributed to Amalgam

¹ Centre for Complementary Medicine Research, Internal Medicine II, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany;
² Division of Complementary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland;
³ Department of Restorative Dentistry, Periodontology and Pediatric Dentistry, University of Munich, Germany;
⁴ Department of Clinical Toxicology, Internal Medicine II, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany;
⁵ International Association for Holistic Dental Medicine, Mannheim, Germany; and
⁶ Institute of Toxicology, GSF Research Centre for Environment and Health, Munich, Germany

^* corresponding author, Kaiserstr. 9, D-80801 Munich, Germany, dieter.melchart{at}lrz.tum.de

The aim of the present study was to compare the reduction of subjective complaints by 3 treatment strategies in 90 "amalgam patients" whose complaints could not be explained by a medical or psychological disorder. The individuals were randomly assigned either to removal of dental amalgam only (removal group), or removal in combination with a "biological detoxification" therapy with high doses of vitamins and trace elements (removal-plus group), or participation in a health promotion program without removal of dental amalgam (no-removal group). Between baseline and month 12, the sum score of main complaints decreased by 3.5 (SD = 2.2) points on average in the removal group as well as in the removal-plus group, and by 2.5 (SD = 2.4) points in the no-removal group (p = 0.152). Both removal groups showed a significant decrease in steady-state levels of inorganic mercury compared with the no-removal group. Thus, all 3 interventions were associated with clinically relevant improvements.

KEY WORDS: Dental amalgam • mercury • subjective health complaints • controlled trial