The debate about the safety of amalgam has raged since 1833, when they were first introduced as a cheap alternative to gold fillings. Even then some dentists were outraged at the use of such a highly toxic metal in patients mouths. The controversy was quelled when proponents of amalgam insisted that the mercury was ‘safe’ because it was stabilized in the hardened amalgam compound of silver, copper, tin, and zinc. From then until recently amalgam has been the ‘default’ filling material for dental cavities. 

Advantages of amalgam are it is durable, easy to use and inexpensive.
Physical disadvantages of amalgam include possible short-term sensitivity to hot or cold after the filling is placed. Amalgam’s silver color is not natural looking, and shows when the patient laughs or speaks. Also to prepare the tooth for an amalgam filling, the dentist needs to remove more healthy tooth than for other types of filling. 

But the main disadvantage of amalgam is the fact it contains elemental Mercury – the second most toxic element after Plutonium. The World Health Organization believes that there is no safe level of Mercury, and the body’s predominant source of mercury exposure is from amalgam fillings. The average ‘amalgam filling’ contains 500,000 parts per million of mercury (enough mercury to contaminate a 5 acre lake and declare it unsuitable for drinking and fishing) as much as a typical mercury thermometer. A mercury thermometer is considered such a biohazard if broken, the government has recently banned them. 

Mercury continues to be a used in restorative materials where significant amounts of mercury vapor are released especially when old amalgam fillings are removed and when new ones are placed. Mercury vapor, which is considered the deadliest form of mercury, is inhaled and passes via the lungs into the blood stream, which carries mercury to virtually all the body’s tissues and organs. It is noteworthy that as of October 1998, all over the counter products containing mercury had to be removed from the shelves because the manufacturers could not prove their safety. The scientific evidence for mercury toxicity from amalgam fillings is very compelling. 

Despite this evidence major U.S. and international scientific and health bodies, (including World Health Organization and the British and American Dental Associations among others) still maintain that dental amalgam is a safe, reliable and an effective restorative material. This is despite studies showing toxic mercury vapor readings in the mouths of patients with amalgam fillings. Amalgam is not safe: Mercury is unquestionably a toxic substance, and it does escape from amalgam fillings, continuously vaporizing in amounts that are frequently in the hazardous range. 

Proponents of amalgam argue that only a very small number of people are genuinely allergic to amalgam fillings. Citing that fewer than 100 cases where mercury has triggered an allergic response similar to a typical skin allergy. But these are overt allergic reactions, very little is known about the potential harm that the small doses of mercury released from amalgam can cause indirectly. 

My opinion is why take the risk when other restorative materials are available that cause less sensitivity, look like teeth, last as long as amalgams and do not contain Mercury.