Had the last of mine out about a year ago and will try to remember what I learned. You do have to be careful about who does it and get someone who knows the right way. You might ask at your local health food store if in a big city.

Ask how much experience the dentist has had with the removal and just what does he do to ensure the patient's safety. If he or she is the right one, among other things he will use a rubber dam to catch the particles. This is simply a sheet of rubber stretched across the back of your mouth like a trampoline to keep you from swallowing the old amalgam.

They should also use positive air flow through a nose mask to keep you from inhaling the vapors as the work progresses. If you are in really good hands he will start talking about the importance of chelating agents to latch onto the molecules that get by and then transport them to the kidneys. I think that I remember green tea extract and alpha lipoic acid as chelators and possibly acetyl-l-carnitine and l-carnosine, too. But go to Medline and confirm that.

Ron is right. If your fillings are old it might be best to leave them alone and really look into chelating agents. And I fear that blood tests are of limited value overall as mercury lodges in tissue such as the brain and so "disappears".

One thing for sure, do not let them put any into your kid's mouth and think hard about what vaccines are really needed. There is something terrible loose in the land. Autism and such rates are going through the roof and methyl mercury is a prime candidate.