Health Canada’s 1996 Position Statement on Dental Amalgam assessed, however, that there was not sufficient evidence to support a ban on the use of amalgam fillings or the removal of sound amalgam fillings in patients who have no indication of adverse health effects attributable to mercury exposure. As alternative restorative materials to amalgam exist, continued use of amalgam represents an unnecessary exposure to toxicity risk from mercury. The continued widespread use of amalgams in dental restorations may have negative health consequences in the Canadian population. Dental amalgam fillings are a major source of mercury exposure in the general population, with several studies showing a correlation between the number of amalgam surfaces and brain, blood and urine concentrations of mercury. Exposure to mercury vapor is a known health risk with no clearly established safe level of exposure. The use of safer alternative materials for dental fillings should be encouraged to avoid the increased risk of health deterioration associated with unnecessary exposure to mercury.ĭue to the potential health risks associated with exposure to mercury, the use of dental amalgam fillings remains a source of controversy. Our findings suggest that mercury exposure from amalgam fillings adversely impact health and therefore are a health risk. Although urine mercury levels in our sample are considered by Health Canada to be too low to pose health risks, removal of amalgam fillings reduced the likelihood of self-reported symptom deterioration and increased the likelihood of symptom improvement in comparison to people who retained their amalgam fillings. Removal of amalgam fillings decreases measured urine mercury to levels in persons without amalgam fillings. ResultsĪt baseline, individuals with dental amalgam fillings have double the measured urine mercury compared to a control group of persons who have never had amalgam fillings. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the likelihood of observing symptom improvement or worsening in the sample groups. We use non-parametric statistical tests to determine if differences in urine mercury were statistically significant between sample groups. The likelihood of change over one year in a sample of persons who had their fillings removed was compared to a sample of persons who had not had their fillings removed. In a large longitudinal non-blind sample of participants from a preventative health program in Calgary, Canada we compared number of amalgam fillings, urine mercury measures and changes in 14 self-reported health symptoms, proposed to be mercury dependent sub-clinical measures of mental and physical health. The objective of our study is to determine if mercury exposure from amalgam fillings is associated with risk of adverse health effects. Consequently there is debate over whether the level of prolonged exposure to mercury vapor from dental amalgam fillings, combining approximately 50% mercury with other metals, is sufficiently high to represent a risk to health. Mercury vapor poses a known health risk with no clearly established safe level of exposure.
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