A Panoramic View About Side Effects of Amalgam Fillings and their Safely Removal

Abstract

Amalgam is the oldest material used as a definitive restoration of teeth. Many countries have banned it’s use, others have reduced it. More and more Amalgam is being accused for many damages it causes in the human body, as a result of mercury release in the oral cavity. Mercury is a heavy metal, with accumulative properties, especially in neural tissue. Damages caused by mercury are studied by many authors. An important problem remains the safety removal of amalgam from patients teeth, where is presented or not any pathology from it. Today in Albania, it’s removal is still done with no precaution. Aim: To give our own experience in safely removal of amalgam fillings. Material and methods: There are taken 24 subjects under the study with teeth filled with amalgam, who wanted to change those fillings. From those, 3 had lichenoid reactions in the oral mucosa near the amalgam filling, 8 subjects had damaged filling or secondary caries and 13 subjects wanted to replace their amalgam fillings for esthetic reasons. The period of the study was 3 years. Results and discussion: The replacement of the amalgam fillings was done in all the subjects. They had only one filling to change, except one subject with lichenoid reaction near amalgam fillings. He changed 3 amalgam fillings, for a period of four months. In 100% of cases, were presented no complaints. In the subject, where were changed 3 fillings, the lichenoid reaction disappeared after 12 weeks. Conclusions: The removal of amalgam from teeth fillings, should be done following a standardized protocol, which preserves both the safety of the patient and the doctor, from the high exposure to mercury vapors.

Keywords: Amalgam, safety removal of amalgam, oral mucosa.