2002 Update
The practice of filling teeth with mercury amalgams was established at a time when very little was known about the electrostatic, electromagnetic and thermoelectric properties and behaviour of metals, mixtures of metals and dissimilar metals in contact with each other.
However, during the later part of the 19th century it did become known that mercury amalgams could be used to boost the efficiency of electrostatic generating machines (see: Winter’s Plate Machine).
And, at various times during the last 150 years, numerous individuals have led calls for the suitability of the use of this material in dentistry to be re-evaluated.
It appears that this may include individuals who were influential in Germany’s National Socialist regime during the early and middle parts of the 20th century (see: The Nazis).
In more recent times experimental studies have been carried out which appear to demonstrate certain aspects of the electrical behaviour of mercury amalgam fillings (see: Recent Data), and these indicate that the application of the description “electric batteries” to such fillings is not unwarranted.
However, it appears that some commentators continue to insist that these electrical behaviours have not been measured accurately (see: Peter Sheridan), and this might have some bearing on the reasons why experimental investigations to determine the extent to which the electrical behaviour of mercury amalgam dental fillings is able to dissipate electrical energy through the nerves in people’s heads still do not yet appear to have been carried out.
Nevertheless, the evidence suggests that more and more of those dentists who have now stopped placing mercury amalgams in people’s teeth are citing the electrical properties of the material for their decisions (see: Mercury-Free Dentists), and that their respective national dental associations are perhaps now less inclined to bring sanctions against them for their anti-amalgam stances.
Finally, the last word on this up-date should perhaps go to Dr David Brown, the dental materials “scientist” whose incomplete knowledge of the electrical behaviours of mixtures of metals was first exposed ten years ago. On being informed by the author of the original letters that they are now displayed on this website, Dr Brown offered the following message:
Dear *********
I notice it is 10 years
since you started your enquiries and I wonder what your present dental health
is like and whether you have a combination of materials in your mouth that have
sustained your ability to eat, speak and smile, and are still helping you to
enjoy life, or whether you have selected to have all your teeth removed. For
this is the challenge that those of us (and I include myself here) have as a
result of over-enthusiastic sweet eating and under-enthusiastic tooth cleaning
in our formative years.
Teeth are meant to last for our life-span, but, as I can vouch there is a ‘circle of life’ for these useful organs and after many years of treatment with a range of materials their destiny is ‘the bucket’.
Do continue to look after your teeth and encourage others to do so, for there is no substitute for the real dental materials – enamel and dentine.
All good wishes.
Dr David Brown
* Senior Lecturer, Dental Biomaterials Science
* Director for External Affairs
GKT Dental Institute
King's College London
Floor 17, Guy's Tower
London Bridge
London, SE1 9RT
e-mail: david.2.brown@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 44(0) 20 7955 4551
Fax: 44(0) 20 7955 2963
Departmental Home Page: www.umds.ac.uk/dental/dms/
(This page was http://book.boot.users.btopenworld.com/update.htm )