Mercury Toxicity Essay

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MERCURY TOXICITY INTRODUCTION Silver amalgam has been in use as a restorative material since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Unlike any other plastic dental filling material, it has been in continuous clinical use for more than 160 years. Yet the safety of dental amalgam for both the dental patient and the dental personnel has been questioned intermittently since the inception of the use of this material. The controversy relates to the important component of the dental amalgam, that is, mercury. The seemingly constant pronouncements about the toxic effects of mercury and the suggested links between dental amalgam and disease have confused and frightened the general public. While there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support such claims, they continue to fuel the anti-amalgam fire. Jones has arqued that the media is not the place to present preliminary research results, especially when they involve an emotionally charged subject such as mercury poisoning. HISTORY [Amalgam Wars] Controversy is not new for amalgam. The foundation for the earliest recorded “amalgam war” were laid around 1833. The Crawcour brothers, then exiled from France for dental practice irregularities started a thriving practice in New York city using a silver coin-mercury mixture called “Royal Mineral succedaneum”. However, there was no attention to the proper mercury alloy ratios or to the type of alloy being used. For the most part, the alloy mixed with the mercury was prepared by filling silver coins whose composition was considerably variable. After a few years of the unscrupulous and inept work of the Crawcours and their followers, disastrous side effects started to appear. In many cases, the inconsistency in materials and techniques led to slow setting amalgams that released mercury from the unset mass into unprotected dentinal tubules. Although there were
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