Amalgam

•Excellent handling properties •High strength,Expansion,Durable,Direct technique•Cheap •Ease of useDamages human health?—Toxicologically? Galvanic action? Hypersensitivity Environmentally a disaster

Composition of amalgam

• 50% Mercury

• 35% Silver

• 13% Tin

• 2% Copper and Zinc

First concerns over amalgam toxicity

• Mercury as a chemical component

• Galvanic actions

• Hypersensitivity to amalgam

Mercury release from dental fillings

Tissues uptake of mercury from dental fillings.

What tissues are affected

All of them

International research concluded

“ Mercury from restorations constitutes the largest non occupational source of mercury in the general population, being greater than all environmental sources combined.”

W.H.O. environmental health criteria

Inorganic mercury 1991.

Pathophysiological consequences

Revision !

• Homeopathic mercury what do we know about the proving

Should we remove amalgam .

THE CONUNDRUM

• Patient selection

• Patients request

Removal and safe protocol.

• Diet

• Remedies

•Dental technique

Perhaps a thousand years on from now historians will draw a similarity between the chronic lead poisoning of the Roman Empire and the insidious mercury poisoning from amalgam fillings.