Have silver cavity fillings been shown to be harmful to long-term health?

Answer 1

Amalgams are not harmful to your long-term health, and they have been used for over a hundred years in millions of people and probably billions of cavities.When mercury is mixed with the silver (80%) and tin (20%), it forms an intermetallic compound. Hence it sets hard over about 10mins. Any mercury that comes out of the fillings is not only an extremely tiny dose, but is bound up as an inorganic form. Your body excretes this easily, and doesn't accumulate it.
The nasty mercury compounds are the organic form, and these are most often found in fish. This stuff does build up in your body, and at very high levels can cause problems.
The real push towards composite fillings is their naturally better appearance. However, in the durability competition, amalgam is still the clear leader in more demanding situations than composites. It's almost foolproof to place, cheap, and requires no special bonding chemicals.
If I wanted to triple my income, I would only have to scare people like the last answer. Then I could give my patients with amalgams that are over 50 years old some nice white fillings (that they all secretly want), and wait for them to fail over the next 5-10 years, so I could do them again. Hey, I'm not anti-composite, and done properly in certain situations they will work very well. But let's not be scared into them for unscientific reasons that have no solid data.

Answer 2

Fillings are not silver but amalgam which, unfortunately, is about 50% mercury. Conventional wisdom says they do not cause any long term harm, however there is a school of thought that believes the body absorbs some of the mercury over long periods of time. When they need to be replaced they are usually replaced with some kind of a polymer as it appears white and is not noticeable when u open ur mouth.

Answer 3

Amalgam (the silver filling) is a mix of particularly silver, tin, copper and zinc. The training comes with small volume of mercury that reacts to amalgamate the aggregate while triturated. there is on no account extra mercury left interior the aggregate while the reaction already occurs. This delicate, pliable mixture is then placed into the hollow area and allowed to set no longer trouble-free after carving. The white filling (the Composite Resin filling) is the factitious (acrylic resin) cloth with distinctive sizes of debris dispersed interior the aggregate. that's stable to have the numerous particle length because of the fact it facilitates the debris to fill out the gaps in between. those fillings may well be self scientific care (self-placing) or easy scientific care (activated with the aid of blue easy) variety Amalgam fillings are better because of the fact those are steel based fillings. Composite resin fillings are, on the different hand, no longer something yet plastic cloth that are lots weaker. Amalgam fillings are silver or properly, steel colored while the resin fillings incorporate distinctive colours and hues, for this reason has a severe call for. 4. USE: Amalgam fillings are placed interior the posterior the teeth, that are subjected to greater chewing rigidity and resin fillings are placed interior the esthetic zone, i.e., interior the front the teeth. Amalgam fillings are placed interior the posterior the teeth, that are subjected to greater chewing rigidity and resin fillings are placed interior the esthetic zone, i.e., interior the front the teeth.

Answer 4

Inconclusivity abounds in the matter. US is against it in principle, UK makes no comments, many countries continue to refuse banning the amalgam fillings. The risk of mercury going down your throat is not as much as is made out to be. The amount of mercury that rest on the tooth may be harmful when gulped down accidentally. (If we were to take nicotine in concentrated form equal to it is in a cup of tea, coffee, or a cigarette we happily exhale rings of smoke, would be enough fatally.) White fillings have highest rating esthetically, in comparison to amalgam are safe but last only about 5-10 years. Cost multiplied per tooth!

Answer 5

No. Nothing has been proven. And as for the stupid person talking about dentistry driven by money...well resin (tooth colored fillings) cost the patient more and do not last as long...my reference is the American Dental Association..not some dentist trying to sell a book. Check out my answer for the same quetion given last week for more details.

Oh and by the way....the recent news was that the FDA wouldn't approve a report stating that dental alloy was safe...they have parameters to folllow and the study itself wasn't approved..However, while it hasn't been proven to be safe...other than years of use without any problems...it also has NOT been proven to be unsafe. Mercury is bad for you...in excess...so is Flouride (once a rat poison). Clouride is bad for you....sodium by itself is too. Combined (other than high blood pressure) we consume them everyday as salt

Answer 6

I agree with Dr. Matt, amalgam fillings are not to harmful from the studies that have been done , the only concern that people will see is stetics, white fillings (composite) are much nicer in the sense of looks.

Answer 7

Yes. Any kind of metal that is exposed to your body over a period of time can and will cause problems. Check out the link below and get the book by Dr. Hulda R. Clark, Ph.D., N.D., called "The Cure For All Diseases." And, please just don't take my research word for it, but do your own. And, as you may know already, the mainstream dental profession says that these metal fillings do not cause any problems. And, I wonder if they have any vested financial interest in being able to continue to use these metals in our mouths? I have found out that when there is a conflict between money and our health, that money will always win, unless one is wise enough to prevent that from happening. There is an area of dentistry called "Metal-free Dentistry," that sounds a lot healthier to me.

Answer 8

Dentisis do NOT use steel. The restorations are a amalgamation of several metals: silver, copper, mercury, nickel, etc. There is no known link between mercury poisoning and health risks.

Answer 9

Mercury is called quick silver. Dental fillings are safe and cheap .

Answer 10

Yes. Recently on the news, they said the mercury used for fillings have been shown to do some damage to the brain.