2023-07-23 08:31:27
Amalgam has not had a good image for a long time. As early as the 1980s, newspapers wrote “plastic instead of poison seals” about the filling material, which consists not only of metals such as silver, copper and tin, but also half of mercury. Many patients are afraid of the heavy metal, which is particularly toxic in vapor form and has a neurotoxic effect. Dentists, on the other hand, emphasize that the amounts absorbed through fillings are minimal, and to this day they do not want to do without amalgam: it has been used successfully in dental technology for a long time. This could soon be over: the EU Commission wants to largely ban amalgam fillings from 2025 due to environmental and health damage.
In the past, amalgam was used very frequently: According to the German Oral Health Study from 1997, 58 percent of the filled tooth surfaces were sealed with it at the time; in 2005 it was 43 percent. Within the past twenty years, newly placed dental fillings in patients with statutory health insurance have generally decreased by almost a quarter to around 45 million in 2022. According to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Dentists, around one million of these were made of amalgam, compared to 1.4 million in the previous year – so they still make up a good two percent of new fillings, in the area of the former GDR it is around six percent.
#Risks #environment #health #Commission #ban #amalgam