DT News - Nordic - Alternative medicine used to cure amalgam-attributed health complaints

Dental Tribune International

Sun. 31 January 2016

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TROMSØ, Norway: Norwegian researchers have investigated the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patients with health complaints attributed to former dental amalgam fillings. All study participants had reported persistent health problems—similar to those in patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms—even after having all fillings removed.

According to the investigators, an average of one-fourth of people with amalgam-attributed health complaints report no or little improvement or even deterioration after removal of all dental amalgam fillings. The health complaints of these patients are often similar to symptom patterns associated with medically unexplained physical symptoms, such as fibromyalgia, a medical condition characterised by widespread musculoskeletal pain, and myalgic encephalomyelitis, a chronic fatigue syndrome.

In order to assess the prevalence and range of CAM use in this group of patients, researchers from UiT The Arctic University of Norway surveyed 324 members of Forbundet Tenner og Helse, the Norwegian dental patient association, a non-profit patient organisation that promotes non-toxic dentistry. Common to all participants was the attribution of their health complaints to former dental amalgam fillings.

CAM modalities were classified into the following five categories: alternative medical systems or complete systems of therapy and practice, such as traditional Chinese medicine and homeopathy; mind–body interventions, such as meditation; biologically based systems, including herbalism; body-based methods, such as chiropractic and massage therapy; and energy therapies, such as healing.

At 89 per cent, the vast majority of respondents had used at least one CAM modality, with more men (95.7 per cent) reporting CAM use than women (86 per cent). Regarding type of CAM, the most frequently used therapies were dietary supplements, vitamins and minerals recommended by a therapist (used by 66.7 per cent), followed by self-prescribed dietary supplements, vitamins and minerals (59.0 per cent), homeopathy (54 per cent), acupuncture (48.8 per cent) and special diets (47.5 per cent).

When asked about the perceived effect, participants with normal to good health reported better treatment outcomes compared with those with poor health, the study found. In contrast, worsening of symptoms after CAM treatment was noted by 12.3 per cent of the participants.

Although the analyses showed that CAM was widely used among the participants, the findings cannot be generalised, since the highly selected study group may not be representative of the total patient group, the researchers stressed. However, as adverse effects due to dental amalgam is not an accepted diagnosis in the health care system, the reasons for the considerably high use of various CAM modalities may also be related to the experienced lack of support and treatment offered within the conventional health care system, they concluded.

The results of the study, titled “Use of complementary and alternative medicine in patients with health complaints attributed to former dental amalgam fillings”, were published online on 22 January in BioMed Central’s open-access journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

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