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Amalgam restorations are popularly known as “silver” fillings, although it usually contains less than 3% silver. It has been used for over 170 years and has been the dominant material used for fillings. But the use of amalgam has been declining over the past few decades due to the availability of alternative restoration materials (e.g., composite resin), as well as the increasing demand by the public of mercury-free fillings...

Amalgam is a material composed of mercury and a mixture of several metal powders (e.g., silver, copper, tin) mixed with mercury liquid to form a mouldable paste. It is a strong, inexpensive and previously thought to be stable substance used in dental restorations for repairing tooth structure lost to tooth decay and cavities. 

Research of the mid-1980’s showed how the mercury vapour continuously escapes from the filling. To view a video of this, go to www.iaomt.org and watch the video called “Smoking Teeth”.

Amalgam had many advantages over other restoration materials. It is very strong and wears away more slowly than other materials, except for gold. It also can be placed into the cavity more quickly. Furthermore, amalgam is the least expensive material available.

However, amalgam has certain drawbacks. The silver colour of amalgam does not look like natural tooth enamel and the material often requires removing more of the healthy tooth structure than other materials. Sometimes, a small gray or blue discoloration can appear on the soft tissues (e.g., inner cheeks, gums) near the filling. This is known as an amalgam tattoo, and is a continuous source of mercury to the body.

 For a complete overview of the history and controversy of dental mercury amalgam go to 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_amalgam_controversy#_note-18

 

MERCURY AMALGAM TOXICITY: THE FACTS

  • Every amalgam  daily releases 17 micrograms of mercury into the body, according to the World Health organization (WHO), i.e. more than 3 billion mercury atoms daily.
  • More than 90% of the excretable Hg in humans is derived from amalgam fillings.
  • Hg crosses the maternal placenta into the tissue of a developing fetus.
  • Hg is capable of inducing auto-immune diseases, kidney conditions, neurological complications and many chronic illnesses (over 200 symptoms).
  • Hg immediately and continually challenges the kidney's functioning.
  • Hg can enhance the prevalence of multiple antibiotic resistant intestinal bacteria.
  • Hg is extremely toxic, even more toxic than lead and arsenic.
  • People exposed to Hg on a sustained basis, such as having Hg-containing fillings, are at risk to lowered fertility.
  • The dental sector is the third largest user of Hg and the single largest discharger of Hg into U.S. waters.
  • Approximately 100 million amalgams are placed in patients each year by 175 000 U.S. dentists, thereby using 44 tons of mercury.
  • The amount of Hg in one average filling exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) standard for human exposure for over 100 years.
  • It takes only 0,5 grams of Hg (the amount of Hg in one average filling) to contaminate all fish in a 10-acre lake.
  • The EPA declared dental amalgam a hazardous waste in 1988. If a dentist places dental amalgam in a lake, or buries it in the ground, he would be breaking the law. Yet it is still acceptable (sic) to place it in a human mouth!
  • The metallic mercury used by dentists to manufacture dental amalgam is shipped as a hazardous material, but according to the American Dental Association (ADA) the mouth is considered a safe "storage container" for this toxic material.
  • The FDA has never accepted "dental amalgam" and has only classified "dental mercury" and "amalgam alloy" separately. And to top it all, the dentist who makes the amalgam has the sole responsibility of the "reaction product", and will be left "holding the bag" if legal actions were to take place.

Over time amalgam expands, resulting in small cracks developing in the tooth.  These cracks were previously thought to be the result of a weak tooth remaining after the placement of the filling. This view has been placed under the spotlight when non-filling, healthy teeth adjacent to amalgam filled teeth were seen to crack.

Image
The crack down the inside wall of the tooth is visible after the amalgam filling was removed. This crack resulted in early signs of decay (the traingular area at the base of the crack line.
 

For more scientific information on this topic, goto Scientific Evidence.

Read a dentist's report on his patients' improvements after amalgams were removed at  http://www.amalgam-info.ch/estava-e.pdf.

 
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