In this debut memoir, educator and advocate Bauer chronicles her and her daughter’s recovery from a variety of maladies, tying them all to a single cause—mercury in her fillings.

In 1993, when the Oregon-based author began suffering from acute light sensitivity, weakness, poor vision, skin peeling, and insomnia, she found no relief from her doctors, who found nothing wrong with her. She found her own answer in an entry describing mercury poisoning in an encyclopedia of alternative medicine. After studying the topic more thoroughly and looking back on her life, she concluded that her many silver fillings, which contained mercury, had been slowly poisoning her since she was 5 years old. The harmful effects, she felt, had likely been transferred to her daughter, Miko, during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The author gradually and creatively reveals these details over the course of this memoir, using the framing device of her visit to a holistic dentistry center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1994. There, she had all of her fillings replaced and underwent an intense detoxification period which eventually led her back to full health, she says. This allowed her to then focus on young Miko, who suffered from developmental delays and her own array of health problems. With the help of a unique diet, homeopathy, and therapies such as Auditory Integration Training and behavioral optometry, Bauer says, Miko was able to flourish. Bauer is a highly engaging storyteller, which makes her memoir an enjoyable read. However, although she offers a convincing account of her recovery, she doesn’t address why so many other people with similar fillings haven’t suffered the same ailments that she did. Still, she presents her arguments powerfully: “How could putting the second most dangerous element on earth into our teeth be beneficial?” She also discusses the American Dental Association, which, she says, continues to support the use of fillings that contain mercury. Her book won’t convince every reader, but some may come away from this account more curious and cautious about its subject.

An earnest account of what the author calls a “mercury epidemic” in dentistry.