Medical implications of dental mercury: a review.

3 ilver-mercury fillings—also called dental or mercury amalgams— ave been used in dentistry since 1832. In 1840, the dental ssociation of the day argued over whether to use mercury as filling material because it was cheap, or to withdraw it ecause it was toxic. The safety debate had already begun and ould be called “Amalgam War I.” In the late 1920s, Dr Alfred tock, a biochemist and researcher, wrote close to 30 articles escribing the toxicity of mercury and linking it to dental malgam fillings—this then became “Amalgam War II.” In 973, some dentists and their patients began to question the afety of silver-mercury fillings when it became apparent that ome patients were reporting health improvements after reoval of their mercury amalgam fillings. The primary purose of this review is to bring together much of the available esearch and literature that focuses on health issues associated ith mercury in dental fillings, some of the basic science nformation that is known about how the body processes ercury, and to offer some observations from the practices of entists removing dental mercury from their patients. We lso hope this review will draw attention to the potential onnections between mercury released from dental fillings nd autoimmune diseases. Many autoimmune diseases are lassified as diseases of unknown etiology; yet, the well-docmented toxic effects of mercury may explain some of the ymptoms observed in autoimmune diseases.