No one else in my family has the burning in the hands and feet. It is most painful in my feet but I do experience in my hands. The only testing the did was an extensive diabetes test and nerve conduction. My neuroligist seemed a little baffled by it and said it was "true sensory neuropathy". I noticed the burning in my early 20's when I was starting dental assisting and thought it was from being on my feet and wearing gloves but it didn't stop when I quit working to have my first child at 26. Now at 32 I can rarely wear a shoe that encloses my foot. Also, when I wake up my legs are starting to burn a bit and ache too. The doctor said this could affect my walking later in life which completely freaks me out! I am going to read up on that disorder you mentioned. This condition is hard to live with daily. He is recommending me to try cymbalta but I haven't yet started it yet he is expecting some samples that I can try. Thanks again for you ideas. If you have any more I am glad to hear them

jessica

Well this is a longshot, but several years ago I had a client with severe neuropathy like you describe. They did all sorts of tests and everything came up negative.

I went over everything I could think of that might be causing the neuropathy and when we started talking about her diet she mentioned that she ate tuna salad every day from the deli down the street. I knew that tuna was one of the fish that had cautions because of potentially high levels of methyl mercury. Sure enough, she apparently had gotten too much mercury in her tissues and it was causing the neuropathy.

The kind of mercury used in dental applications (elemental mercury) is different...you could swallow it and it probably wouldn't hurt you since in most people it passes through the digestive tract intact, but it's the vapor that is dangerous and likely skin contact. So working as a dental assistant breathing vapor from fillings being mixed or ground out with a drill could definitely give you significant exposure over time.

There is a challenge test that some doctors can do (like a toxicologist) where they give you a chelating agent called DMSA and then measure the excretion of mercury in your urine. Unfortunately a lot of alternative doctors are fixated on mercury toxicity and way overdue the diagnosis and treatment so many doctors are afraid to look into it because they might get labeled a quack. However there is a legitimate reason to be concerned about mercury toxicity in certain circumstances, and your job exposure would definitely qualify.

It's actually quite easy to chelate mercury out of the tissues using an amino acid called L-Histidine. You have to be sure to get enough zinc while you're using a therapeutic dose, but it's very safe and effective. I am saying this from personal experience...my husband was a dental tech in the military when we first got married and I laundered all his clothes myself. They were sometimes spattered with amalgam and handling the clothing and breathing the vapors from them in the dryer must have caused an accumulation of mercury. He didn't seem to be affected by it, but I was. As you probably know, now if there is an amalgam spill in the dental office they have to wear HazMat suits to clean it up!

Jan

Jan

I have considered what I could have been exposed to at work. I worked in an orthodontic office and wasn't explosed to amalgum but a couple of times in my training. Thank you for the time you take to answer questions!!

I live in flip-flops almost exclusively, year 'round, because shoes are so painful and uncomfortable.

Wow a lot of responses on this! Thanks for all the information. I dont know what mine is all about but it is interesting to hear about all your symptoms. I will be going to the MDA clinic in September so we shall see what the dr says. It sure does hurt though and it is very hard to tolerate at times. I am glad we have this site to compare these problems with each other.