Workplace Hazards Associated with Amalgam

Dental professionals face the hazards of amalgam’s mercury everyday in their workplace, most of them with no protection against mercury exposure....


Workplace Mercury Exposure

Dental professionals – including dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, and dental office staff – can be exposed to mercury in their workplace, both directly and indirectly: 

• Direct exposure: Dental professionals can come into direct contact with amalgam’s mercury during the preparation, placement, and removal of amalgam fillings. Accidental mercury spills can also lead to direct exposure.


• Indirect mercury exposure:  Dental professionals can also encounter mercury indirectly in their work environment. Researchers have found high levels of mercury in the air of dental offices that use amalgam. This mercury can also contaminate carpeting and pipes.

Workplace Health Problems

This exposure to mercury in the workplace would explain.... 

• Higher mercury levels in dental professionals: Dental workers have higher levels of mercury in their bodies than the general population.


• More health problems for dental professionals: Dentists report or seek treatment for more health problems – including neurological, neuropsychological, respiratory, cardiac, and kidney disorders – than the general population.


• Reproductive problems for female dental professionals: : Female dental professionals of child-bearing age who are exposed to amalgam in the workplace experience more reproductive problems than unexposed women.

Tooth Damage Associated with Amalgam
​On top of the risks of mercury exposure, amalgam is not even good for teeth.

Oral Health Damage
Amalgam can harm your oral health by....

• Damaging tooth structure during placement: Placing amalgam requires the removal of a significant amount of healthy tooth matter.This removal weakens overall tooth structure, which increases the need for future dental work – and the costs coming out of your pocket.
• Cracking teeth after placement: After placement, amalgam fillings expand and contract over time. As a result, these teeth can crack – leading to still more dental work.

Environmental Problems Associated with Amalgam

Mercury amalgam dental fillings have an impact far beyond your mouth – they are one of the most significant sources of mercury pollution today.

Superior modern alternatives to amalgam preserve healthy tooth structure and actually strengthen teeth, leading to better oral health and less extensive dental work over the long-term. 

Quantity of Dental Mercury

Between 270 and 341 tonnes of mercury are consumed globally for use in amalgam each year. Accounting for at least 10% of global mercury consumption, amalgam is among the largest consumer uses of mercury in the world.
Pathways to the environmentDental mercury enters the environment via many different pathways. For example, dental mercury pollutes:

• Air via human cremation, sewage sludge and waste incineration, and dental clinic emissions


• Water via human waste disposal and dental clinic releases


• Land via landfills, human burials, and fertilizers

Environmental Health Risks

After amalgam enters the environment, certain microorganisms can change its elemental mercury into methylmercury, a highly toxic form of mercury that builds up in fish, shellfish, and people that eat fish. Methylmercury can damage children’s developing brains and nervous systems even before they are born

Environmental Costs

After environmental costs are taken into account, amalgam is significantly more expensive than the mercury-free fillings. According to the 2012 report The Real Cost of Dental Mercury, an amalgam filling can cost up to $87 (USD) more than an equivalent mercury-free composite filling, once the full lifecycle costs of each filling is taken into account.

Minamata Convention

The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. The Convention requires each party to “phase down the use of dental amalgam.” It also addresses amalgam in Annex A, where it can be amended later to set a phase-out date for this toxic mercury product. The United States government has signed this Convention, but so far taken no step to effectively phase down amalgam use.