Dental amalgam is an alloy of a number of metals, mainly silver, tin and mercury.
Advances in testing equipment have enabled us to detect very small amounts of mercury released from fillings, especially when fillings are polished or removed. Medical research organisations say that there is no scientific evidence that these tiny amounts of mercury released from dental fillings are a danger to health, apart from those rare cases where some individuals are unusually sensitive to this material. A number of overseas studies indicate there is no increased health risk or shortening of life between groups of people with amalgam fillings and those with none. A normal balanced diet contains amounts of mercury and we also come into contact with it in our environment and in a number of other products. You get much more mercury from these sources than from your amalgam fillings.