What is Amalgam or Mercury Teeth filling?

An amalgam is any mixture or blending of mercury with another metal or with an alloy. Most     metals are soluble in mercury, but some (such as iron) are not. Amalgams are commonly used in dental fillings. Amalgams were the first true standard filling material. But there were various questions that were raised about the safety of dental amalgam relating to its mercury content and now many dentists have banned this particular treatment and so also at Dr.Raj Krishnan’s Dental Clinic.

Thousands of medical studies on humans and animals have confirmed the mechanisms by which mercury (and other toxic metals) cause over 40 serious or chronic health conditions including neurological, hormonal, reproductive, immune, autoimmune, cardiovascular, & birth defects and developmental effects on infants.

 Adverse Effects:

• every amalgam daily releases on the order of 10 micrograms of mercury into the body
• more than 2/3 of the excretable mercury in humans is derived from amalgams,
• mercury crosses the maternal placenta into the tissue of a developing fetus,
• mercury is capable of inducing auto immunity,
• mercury immediately and continually challenges the kidney's functioning,
• mercury can enhance the prevalence of multiple antibiotic resistant intestinal bacteria, and
• people exposed to mercury on a sustained basis are at risk to lowered fertility.

The main reasons for common high exposures of mercury and other toxic metals from amalgam are mercury's negative vapor pressure which means that it is constantly vaporizing plus the galvanic currents(battery effect) created in the mouth by mixed metals that pumps mercury into the gums, jawbone, oral mucosa, and systemically is carried throughout the body by the blood and nerves. Additionally electromagnetic fields (EMF) from appliances such as computer monitors and motors create currents in metal in the mouth that increases galvanism and exposure to metals such as mercury.

Process:

The amalgam used earlier was low in mercury and had to be heated in order for the silver to dissolve at any appreciable rate. More modern dental amalgams are mixed cold. Current dental amalgams contain copper to eliminate the gamma-2 phase of the silver-mercury-tin alloy. The gamma 2 phase is weaker than the other phases so a high copper, low gamma-2 dental amalgam has superior strength.