This project is concerned with the generation of primary data on adverse reactions to dental materials in the UK for which current information is virtually non-existent. The results of this study could have a significant health benefit for dental personnel and patients. It could produce significant savings in the longer term as fewer health care workers are lost to NHS general dental service, fewer patients need costly treatment for adverse reactions to dental materials and patients are treated more appropriately and effectively by a better informed dental profession.
Dental materials are the most extensively employed biomaterials in the human body.
A wide range of materials used within the dental practice pose a potential occupational risk as well as a risk to the patients. As the range and complexity of materials employed in dentistry increases, so the adverse reactions to dental materials become more commonplace. There has been much concern both from the dental profession and the public who use the NHS services regarding the potential adverse reactions to dental materials. As a response to public concern about the safety of dental amalgam, the Norwegian Board of Health in 1992 initiated the Dental Biomaterials Adverse Reaction Unit which is based at the University of Bergen. A similar unit was set up at Umea in Sweden in 1996, which also collects data in such a way that the two units can compare their data.