Dr Hal Alan Huggins, Noted Dental Pioneer, Passes Away

Dr Hal Alan Huggins, or “Doc,” as he was affectionately known, was almost fanatical about the health of his patients and the safety of the materials and procedures he and other dentists used. It was a cause he was completely unaware of when he graduated from the University of Nebraska School of Dentistry in 1962. However, the subject of patient safety completely dominated and defined the last 40 years of his life. He even spent his final weeks struggling to finish the remaining chapters of his latest book about the dangers of dental implants.

It started in 1973 when he met Dr Olympio Pinto, a dentist from South America who had been studying the effects of mercury from dental amalgam, which contains 50% mercury. After Dr Huggins gave a talk at an American Dental Association (ADA) convention, Dr Pinto pulled him aside and shared with him his findings that the mercury in amalgam fillings leaked and, importantly, caused diseases in patients he had in Brazil.

After reviewing the evidence, Dr Huggins became convinced that the mercury did leak and did cause diseases. That finding put him in direct conflict with the ADA, which claimed it to be safe. Owing to their disagreement, the ADA waged a persecution and discrediting campaign against Dr Huggins that lasted for the next 40 years.

Dr Huggins was an early adopter of the concept of integrative medicine, and he is considered the grandfather of the holistic dental movement. Treating the whole patient became his chief concern. Receiving a postdoctorate master’s degree in 1990 with an emphasis on immunology and toxicology, he started running blood tests on his dental patients to check their blood chemistries. From these results, he found the empirical proof he needed. In many cases, what dentists were doing was responsible for the negative changes in blood chemistry and the corresponding diseases that appeared in their patients. Importantly, he found when mercury fillings were properly removed, the chemistries improved and eventually went back to normal. Not surprising, the patient’s health also improved—in many cases dramatically.

As a direct result of this, he founded the Huggins Protocol Training program for dentists to learn the proper way to remove mercury amalgam fillings. As a side note, Dr Huggins often mused how ironic it was that the ADA never wavered from their position about the safety of amalgam in a patient’s mouth, yet, if a dentist were to carelessly throw an amalgam after removal down the sink in an operatory, they could be fined $25 000 for improperly disposing of toxic waste materials.

Dr Huggins turned his attention toward dental materials in general, and he discovered a connection between the materials used and positive patient outcomes. Using blood chemistries as guidelines, he created a biocompatibility test that determined which dental materials were the best for each patient based on his or her individual blood work.

Dr Huggins’s next contribution to understanding potential causes of diseases and the types of dental procedures used was the direct connection between root-canal teeth to disease. This came about after receiving Dr Weston Price’s repressed research from the 1930s. In this research, Dr Price, a dentist himself, showed the connection between disease and root canals, or dead teeth left in the body. Dr Huggins followed up this research and has since written many books and articles about his own experiences with the proper removal of root canal teeth, cavitations, and the subsequent patient improvements.

His goal was to get medical doctors to understand that the materials and procedures that dentists are using in their patients’ mouths affect the whole person—that MDs should look into the area of dental materials and procedures when treating their patients. He published dozens of articles on the connection between disease and dental materials and procedures, always using a scientific viewpoint including the results of blood chemistries.

In his later years, Dr Huggins turned his attention to using emerging scientific tools to explore the bacteria he believed hid in root-canal teeth and caused disease—DNA analysis. He opened Dental DNA Laboratoryi and first started testing extracted root-canal teeth. The results were horrifying. Deadly anaerobic bacteria were found in almost every tooth examined. He then understood how the bacteria could grow in the tooth socket’s periodontal ligament and migrate throughout the body. Finally, he had empirical evidence on the dangers of root canals.

He subsequently published articles about what he found.

When dental implants started becoming mainstream, he tested them. In his words, they contain much more deadly “disease-causing bacteria” in the tooth’s socket and below the gum line than he found in root-canal teeth. That was the book he was working on when he died.

As founder of the Multi-Discipline Alliance of Professionals, he has ensured continuing education for dentists desiring to learn the Huggins dental protocols. Training includes helping their patients avoid and recover from ailments caused by harmful dental procedures.

He also founded Huggins Applied Healing Centerii where patients, dentists, and doctors can get information about his discoveries and referrals to dentists who can provide services using the Huggins protocols.

Throughout his career he never tired of his search for the truth—wherever it led—and always took a scientific approach to discovering the cause and cure for various diseases he believed were the direct result of dentists and the materials and techniques they used.

In this quest, Dr Huggins has presented more than 2500 lectures in 47 US states and 16 foreign countries. He also has authored many books, written more than 50 articles, and given more than 1000 radio/television interviews, including 60 Minutes Australia (1989) and 60 Minutes New Zealand (2007).

The book on dental implants is being finished by this article’s author and will be published the middle of this year.