American Dental Association on Sweden’s Mercury Ban – AND MY COMMENTARY ON IT, FOLLOW THE FOOTNOTES
February 15th, 2009 Comments OffU.S. dentists’ environmental efforts make action unnecessary for dental amalgam – THIS IS LAUGHABLE, AND CERTAINLY WHAT THE ADA WANTS MEMBER DENTISTS TO BELIEVE. WHAT I FIND DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE IS THAT THE DENTAL SCHOOLS MANDATE A SCIENCE-BASED COLLEGE EDUCATION, YET ANYONE WHO IS INVOLVED IN SCIENCE COULDN’T POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND HOW THE ADA’s STATEMENT THAT MERCURY IN AMALGAM IS INERT, ONCE MIXED COULD BE TRUE. WHY THEN, WOULD IT BE UNSAFE TO STORE IT WITHOUT SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS, AND AN ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD TO THROW IT OUT WITH THE TRASH, YET SAFE TO STORE IN AN AMERICAN’S MOUTH
CHICAGO, Jan. 21, 2009–The action taken by the government of Sweden to discontinue the use of all products containing mercury — including dental amalgam –for environmental reasons is not necessary for the United States. (1)
The American Dental Association (ADA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have joined forces to provide dentists with step-by-step guidelines for capturing and recycling dental amalgam waste to prevent its release to the environment. The EPA estimates that dentistry contributes less than one percent of mercury to the environment from man-made sources. (2)
U.S. dentists already capture nearly 80 percent of waste amalgam with standard equipment in their practices, and an increasing number of dentists are also using a device called an amalgam separator which, when added to standard dental office equipment, can capture up to 99 percent of waste amalgam. The captured amalgam can then be recycled, preventing its release to the environment. (3)
Valued as a strong, durable and less expensive treatment option, dental amalgam is a mixture of metals such as silver, copper, tin and mercury that has been used in the U.S. for more than 150 years to fill dental cavities.(4) Its use is declining as patients increasingly prefer natural-looking, tooth-colored fillings and as the durability of other cavity-filling materials continues to improve.(5)
Currently, amalgam accounts for only about 30 percent of dental fillings placed in the U.S. (6)
Nevertheless, dentists and patients continue to value amalgam as a safe, effective and affordable option for filling cavities which is why the ADA developed best management practices for amalgam waste—to preserve this choice of dental filling material as well as help protect the environment. (7) (8)
A recent economic impact study published in the journal Public Health Reports indicates dental care costs in the U.S. would increase up to $8.2 billion in the first year alone if amalgam use was discontinued.(9) Among other effects, this could cripple dental public health programs that serve as a safety net to millions of low-income people. http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/topics/amalgam_economic_impact.pdf (10)
Dental amalgam fillings have helped dentists save the teeth of more than 100 million Americans, who otherwise might have lost those teeth.(11) Best management practices, including capturing and recycling amalgam, protect the environment. Based on dentistry’s already minimal release of mercury to the environment, the approach taken in Sweden is not necessary in the U.S. (12)
1. Sweden began protecting the environment from mercury from dental offices over 15 years before the US did, in fact, in 1997, when I built my new office and equipped it with a mercury separator (NOTE: not an Amalgam separator, for what it does is separate mercury from the waste water, not amalgam from the waste water), I went to Scandinavia to determine what state of the art was. Be sure to read: http://iaomt.org/news/archive.asp?intReleaseID=292
2. What the press release doesn’t state is that in most of the country, these procedures are not required. In NJ, where I practice, new regulations go into effect in September 2010. Most dentists, for obvious economic reasons, are holding off on purchasing systems (average cost, about $1000 a year). Dentistry is the leading NON-REGULATED industrial source of mercury in the environment.
3. They may capture 80%, but they don’t dispose of it properly. Just survey dental assistants as to their knowledge of how to properly dispose of it; you’ll be astounded.
4. What this doesn’t say, is that the material is 50% mercury; the most toxic, naturally-occurring substance on the planet.
5. But insurance companies don’t reimburse for composite, preferring to save their money, employing a “least expensive alternative” clause which makes the placement of dental amalgam far more prevalent than one would choose to believe.
6. I believe this number is closer to 60%. Most patients, faced with the economics of the decision, opt for the cheaper substance. In fact, a Zogby poll of Americans about 5 years ago showed that 80% of all those surveyed were unaware of the fact that mercury made up half of their fillings, and would have chosen alternative materials if they had been so informed.
7. It’s remarks like this one that have caused me to terminate my membership in the ADA after more than 35 years. They certainly don’t represent the way I think. They confuse the facts: It’s the removal of mercury fillings, not the placement of mercury fillings that pose a threat to the environment and to individual health. If these fillings are not removed properly, they pose a far greater health risk to the individual, since the mercury slurry that does not get sucked up by the vacuum system remains on the floor of the mouth, for quick uptake into the tissue.
8. Fillings which break teeth due to thermocycling and fracture, over the long haul are far more expensive to the patient in terms of the need for crowns, and/or extractions and bridgework.
9. As I said in my address before the FDA on this subject in 2006, the cost-savings to the health insurance industry by the banning of the material would probably exceed the costs for the fillings because of the untold numbers of patients who are in treatment for many different problems (e.g. infertility, early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, M.S., chronic fatigue, neurological problems, memory loss, Meniere’s Disease to name a few) that might be related to their body’s inability to properly handle the mercury burden.
10. So are they saying that only 30% of the people in this country aren’t rich enough to be able to afford composite fillings? Once again, the ADA is talking out of both sides of their mouth. In fact, Philadelphia City Council, recognizing that the poor are the ones most likely to receive this inferior product, has mandated informed consent for the placement of mercury fillings in its citizens’ mouths.
11. And they have also broken a fair share to teeth that might have been saved if composite fillings had been bonded to place.
12. Wait a minute….Sweden, which has been using separators for years is in worse shape than the great dentists of the US who have no concern about the environmental issues? For more commentary, please contact me at: 856 546 0665
Over this weekend this, and several other issues such as the use of Mountain Dew, the failure of MD’s to provide supplementation as opposed to medication, and the fallacy of MMR vaccine not being the cause of autism, have been addressed on my blog site www.SmileSouthJersey.com