PubMed · 12611311
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Margaret Surowka Rossi. 2002. Amalgam under attack.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12611311/
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Mercury is a heavy metal widely used by man. It is considered very toxic causing conditions in the central nervous system, behavior disturbances, and renal and sexual disorders. For a century, mercury has been used in the dental practice for its capacity of joining metals (amalgamate), its low cost and its rapid fixing in dental pieces repair. Currently, there is much controversy about the safety of dental amalgams and it has been demonstrated it poses occupational risks to dental practitioners and their assistants. The objective of this study is review aspects related to metallic mercury toxicity for personnel involved in the dental practice and patients with dental amalgams. Routes of mercury exposure in dentistry, occupational risks and measures to prevent mercury poisoning are presented here. A literature review was conducted mostly on data from Biological Abstracts and the Science Citation Index for the period between 1990 and 2000.
OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to quantify the total amount of amalgam used in dental offices in the state of Illinois and to estimate the fractions of amalgam waste material generated during dental procedures. A second objective was to estimate the fractions of non-contact, contact, and tooth retained amalgam through an in vitro study. METHODS: The collection system consisted of containers placed in six dental offices and clinics to collect the material from the in-line trap (contact amalgam) and the excess dental amalgam not placed into the oral cavity (non-contact amalgam). In order to have comparable results, the data was adjusted by the number of dental chairs being used and the number of working days. RESULTS: The range for the non-contact amalgam was from 0 to 102 g, and for the contact amalgam, from 2 to 16 g. The median estimate of non-contact amalgam generated from the 6 dental offices was 421 mg/day/chair, whereas the median estimate of contact amalgam was 64 mg/day/chair. For the in vitro study, 40 one and two surface amalgams (bicuspids and molars), was distributed as follows, 46+/-20% in the tooth, 43+/-19% as non-contact amalgam, and 11+/-4% as contact amalgam. CONCLUSIONS: Based on survey data from the ADA concerning the number of working days per year, the number of practicing dentists, a 50%, by weight, mercury content in amalgam, and the generation estimates from this project, it was estimated that the practicing dentists in the State of Illinois (6455) have the potential to generate 947 kg of non-contact mercury per year, which is recyclable, and 144 kg of contact mercury which has the potential to be discarded in the environment, or be partially recycled. If this approach is applied to the total population of practicing dentist in the United States (123,641), then 18,159 kg of recyclable, non-contact mercury may be generated per year, whereas 2763 kg of contact mercury may be discarded in the environment, or be partially recycled.