This mercury-silver amalgam has been used in dentistry for more than 150 years. To this day, dentists say there's no better treatment for a decaying tooth.
Mercury filling is cheap, durable and easy to place.
Dentists refer to mercury fillings as 'silver amalgam' but they're composed of 50 per cent mercury and 30 to 35 per cent silver, with the remainder made up of tin, copper and zinc. What's not so easy to swallow for some people is that amalgams release minute amounts of mercury vapour, an average of about three-millionths of a gram a day. Eight out of 10 Canadians have mercury fillings in their teeth, according to Canadians for Mercury Relief. Mercury exists in air, water, soil and the food we eat. In response to consumer concerns, Germany was first to ban the use of amalgam in 1993.