Mercury Pollution in Dental Practice

Environmental costs of mercury pollution.

Mercury (Hg) has been used for millennia in many applications, primarily in artisanal mining and as an electrode in the chlor-alkali industry. It is anthropogenically emitted as a pollutant from coal fired power plants and naturally emitted, primarily from volcanoes. Its unique chemical characteristics enable global atmospheric transport and it is deposited after various processes, ultimately e...

Mercury Poisoning From Dental Amalgam

This report is a critical evaluation of the use of dental amalgam with special consideration of the possibility of chronic mercury poisoning. The description of psychic and somatic symptoms associated with corrosion of amalgam might help people with similar symptoms to recognize the possible source of their problems. Medical practitioners need to recognize the characteristic manifestations of m...

Urinary mercury excretion in dental personnel.

Mercury in dental amalgam: a risk analysis

Mercury is a highly potent cell toxin with effects on human and animal nervous systems. Mercury vapour released from dental amalgam is the predominant source of mercury in the human adult and foetal central nervous system in populations of developed countries. Only in small populations with high consumption of methyl mercury containing fish can the contribution from fish consumption reach or su...

Dental amalgam and mercury in dentistry.

Mercury in dentistry has re-emerged as a contentious issue in public health, predominantly because so many people are inadvertently exposed to mercury in order to obtain the benefits of dental amalgam fillings, and the risks remain difficult to interpret. This commentary aims to examine the issues involved in public policy assessment of the continued use of dental amalgam in dentistry. More tha...