Marc Joseph Nutrition - Blog

A couple of weeks back, I wrote a post about the historic rejection of the FDA’s dental mercury filling safety report by its panel of outside experts. Rep. Diane Watson, who has pushed for legislation banning mercury use in dentistry, wrote an excellent article on where things currently stand:

The FDA has already taken numerous steps to limit human and animal exposure to mercury. To date, it has banned mercury in disinfectants and thermometers, warned against mercury in certain foods, and prohibited the presence of mercury in all veterinary products.

Many governments around the world, however, have gone a step further by either limiting the use of or banning mercury fillings. The UK, for example, prohibits pregnant and lactating women from receiving amalgam fillings, and Scandinavian countries are phasing out the product. Canada has also restricted its use.

Despite growing scientific evidence and public awareness of the dangers of exposure to even small amounts of mercury, the FDA, the federal agency charged with regulating dental amalgam, still permits the sale of a dental product that has not been proven safe and classified as the law requires and is used inches from the brain. It continues to sanction commerce in silver fillings without disclosing to the American people that they contain a significant amount of mercury and emit mercury vapor during the entire life of the filling.

The FDA’s past silence on mercury amalgam is all the more curious given the fact that both the Centers for Disease Control, in 2005, identified amalgam as a source of “major exposure” to mercury, and the U.S. Public Health Service warned, in 1999, that mercury amalgam is one of the two greatest sources of mercury exposure to humans.

And what remains to be done:

(1) Disclosure: The FDA must immediately take the simple step of requiring dentists to inform their patients that amalgam is 50% mercury, it constitutes exposure to a neuro-toxin, and alternative fillings are available.

(2) Environmental Impact: The FDA has the legal duty to conduct an environmental impact study of dental amalgam, which it has never done, before properly classifying the material.

(3) Proof of Safety: Manufacturers of amalgam should have the burden of proving its safety. To date, they have never sought nor been given pre-market approval for their product. The FDA must hold amalgam manufacturers accountable.

(4) Children and Pregnant Women: Ten years ago, Health Canada directed its dentists to cease placing mercury fillings in the teeth of children, pregnant women, and persons with kidney disease, mercury hypersensitivity, or braces. The FDA should implement a similar ban in the U.S.

Hopefully last week’s changes in Congress will help to make such changes and legislation a reality.

In early September, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a two-day hearing to review the findings of its draft review of the potential dangers of mercury amalgam fillings. The draft whitepaper concluded that research completed since the last review in 1997 did not change the conclusion that mercury amalgam fillings were safe for use in dental practice.

However, after over seven hours of testimony by 52 different speakers, including members of Congress, toxicology experts, and representatives from other countries that either ban or limit mercury filling use, the advisory panel of outside dental, medical, and scientific experts soundly rejected the FDA’s whitepaper conclusions.

In a first vote, the panelists voted 13-7 to find that that the large federal review of data fails to clearly and objectively present the current body of knowledge on the subject. In a second vote, the panel also voted 13-7 to find that the report’s conclusion that amalgam fillings are safe is not reasonable.

The advisory panel issued a one-page summary explaining its votes here.

A complete transcript of the hearing is available here.

And an excellent summary of the hearing events, as written by an anti-amalgam advocate who testified, can be found here.

The Risks of “Silver” (Mercury) Fillings

Dental amalgam fillings (commonly and deceptively referred to as “silver” fillings) are actually approximately 50 percent mercury. Mercury is a known potent neurotoxin and hormone disruptor.

The America Dental Association (ADA), a long-time advocate of the use of mercury amalgam fillings in dentistry claims, “Dental amalgam contains elemental mercury combined with other metals such as silver, copper, tin and zinc to form a safe, stable alloy.”

Yet, it is a known fact that elemental mercury vapor, which is extremely toxic and easily absorbed through the lungs where it enters the bloodstream, is given off 24×7 once the fillings are in the mouth. An excellent video (”The Smoking Teeth”) showing just that process is available on the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology’s (IAOMT) website.

Push For A Ban

After the hearing, the IAOMT wrote a letter to the FDA requesting that the advisory panels reconvene to review a more expansive set of research examining the safety of mercury amalgam fillings. The IAOMT requested that the hearing include an equal number of scientific experts representing each side, that positions be submitted in writing with scientific citations 21 days prior to the new hearing, and that the submissions be posted to the FDA website and made public prior to the meeting.

The FDA is accepting comments to add to the hearing docket through November 9th. You can submit your comments here (enter Docket No. 2006N-0352).

Also, Representatives Diane Watson and Dan Burton are cosponsors of H.R. 4011, The Mercury in Dental Fillings Disclosure and Prevention Act, which would prohibit after 2008 the use of mercury in dental fillings. Contact your representatives to ask for their support of this legislation.

Mercury amalgam is the only substance on earth that is a toxin before put into the mouth, a hazardous waste when removed from the mouth, and yet, according to the ADA, safe when stored for years in the mouth. Hopefully, those days are soon ending.

(Note: Anyone considering having dental work to replace existing mercury amalgam fillings, should definitely read the IAOMT suggested protocol for safe replacement. And women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should definitely not have any dental work done, as even the safest protocol will result in temporarily elevated mercury exposure that could put a child at risk.)