Could your false teeth make you sick - Dental Health Message Board

brownowl · 03-03-2007, 10:17 AM

Hello: For the past 3 years I have been getting progressively worse in regards to something causing a fever, high white blood count, sed rate, crp, headache, swollen glands, etc. I've been to infectious disease doctors, rheumatologist, and now a neurologist because something is affecting the white matter of my brain and affecting my eye sight. The doctors do not have a clue. I keep asking them one question and they shrug it off or laugh and say it would take a lot of that to cause a problem. But, I thought I would ask here to see if anyone thinks this is possible. In 1993, I had a filling put in, it caused a problem and created an infection, for which the dentists and oral surgeons ended up removing 10 teeth. I'm a grinder. So, they recommended replacing them with bridges that consisted of gold with porceilin (sp?) overlay. So, ok, took out a loan, bought the teeth. For a test that I was supposed to have -- I had to find out what the teeth were made of so that they would not interfere with the magnetic field -- they are actually composed of the following:
Noble materials: 50% gold, 3% palladium, 34% silver, 12% copper
Non-Precious: 79% nichol, 11% chromium, 4.5% molydenum, 2.4% aluminum, and 1.8% beryllium.

For the last 2 months, I've had a headache everyday, some days it is hard to stand up and for some reason I get these times of tingling and numbness over parts of my face and head.

Could the metal in my teeth be making me sick??

Thelma-Louise · 03-03-2007, 11:25 AM

After reading your post I am assuming in your post title you mean "false teeth" as in not your natural teeth such as in crowns and bridges but not dentures, right? Although its possible you could be experiencing a reaction to the various metals it also sounds like you may have an underlying infection somewhere (fever , swollen glands and high white blood cell count)- whether its dental or not - and possibly bite issues with the dental work done - the vision problems, tingling and numbing sensations and headaches can be due to tmj caused by a poor bite - although they are common symptoms of other conditions as well. You may have to take a more pragmatic approach by ruling things out one by one. Have you been to an OS to check for any underlying dental infections? Have you had recent blood work done to check for various diseases, conditions, etc? What test was done that indicated the white matter of your brain was being affected?

brownowl · 03-03-2007, 03:09 PM

Yes, these are crowns and bridges. I had an MRI of the brain because I had all of a sudden lost the vision in my left eye. And the next day, I got such a headache that it takes about everything I've got just to stand up. Now, it is also affecting my right eye and the headache is even worse. According to the MRI it says that I have mild to moderate white matter atrophy -- whatever the heck that means. So, whatever this phase means for the rheumatologist, she scheduled an appt. with the neurologist within a week, I saw the neurologist who did a spinal tap for infection, a visual evoke response test, and a blood test -- the spinal tap came back negative, which is good, the visual test came back negative, but the vision field test reveals that I have hardly any vision left in the left eye. The headache feels like a nail to the head and this weird tingling and numbness, I can actually feel it work its way up, down and across my head and face. These days it is taking a lot to be able to concentrate on things, so I'm not sure what is going on -or- even who to ask. The neurologist has reviewed all the test results and sent a letter to the rheumatologist, now I just got a call from the rheumatologist's assistant (which is weird because it is the weekend) and they have scheduled me an appt. with her for a follow-up on Wednesday -- does this sound extremely strange??

Thelma-Louise · 03-03-2007, 05:51 PM

I believe atrophy means basically drying up or becoming non-supple - I have heard the term used with muscles that are not used so they lose their ability to function and become atrophied or non-working. Its very hard to say if this is strange or not - I have been down a similar road during the past 3 yrs and so far the only relief I have had with my symptoms which are quite similar to yours has been through tmj and myofacial pain syndrome therapies. I have been to neuros and have had brain and spinal MRIs and CT scans and have inclusive results as well - although I did have 10 lesions on my brain - but they said so do a lot of people in my age bracket. So I have been told I may have MS, or RA, or fybro, or scleroderma, a brain infection, etc. Yes, they are all possible but none of the test proved conclusively Ithat I had any of those. So I wouldn't get too alarmed yet - medical professionals tend to look at all possibilities which can be alarming and worrying for us lay people - but when they find nothing conclusive, they will then tell you it will either require more time or its due to anxiety. At that point then you may want to look into seeing a tmj or myofacial pain specialist. Also have you been to an optomologist (sp?) regarding your vision - is the loss of vision due to a compressed optic nerve or degenerative disease, corneal or retina related, etc? If he can determine the cause of the vision problem it might help point you in the right direction as well.