Taking a Bite out of the Harmful Effects of Mercury in Dental Fillings: Advocating for National Legislation for Mercury Amalgams

"Having an amalgam filling placed in a tooth is like having a time bomb in your mouth waiting to go off." (1) I. INTRODUCTION II. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW III. FORMS OF MERCURY IV. POISON PALETTE? FACTS ABOUT AMALGAMS V. THE MERCURY AMALGAM CONTROVERSY VI. LITIGATION IS AN INSUFFICIENT REMEDY VII. REMOVAL IS AN INSUFFICIENT REMEDY VIII. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT IX. LEGISLATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES X. STATE-LEVEL LEGISLATION XI. NATIONAL LEGISLATION XII. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION Mary Stephenson, a fifty-nine-year-old grandmother, visited dozens of counselors and experimented with an array of antidepressants but nothing worked to curb her suicidal feelings. (2) Janie McDowell, a fifty-six-year-old housewife, suffered from hand tremors, leg-muscle spasms, recurring nausea, chronic bladder and kidney infections, severe depression, short-term memory loss, and slurred speech. (3) Freya Koss, a former event planner, experienced dizziness and double vision. Physicians misdiagnosed Koss with lupus, multiple sclerosis, and, finally, myasthenia gravis. (4) The common theme among these medical tragedies is that the above victims all returned to being healthy, active adults after the removal of their mercury amalgam dental fillings. (5) Amalgam is the name dentists give the silver filling material used to reconstruct damaged teeth. (6) Approximately nineteen out of every twenty Americans suffer from dental cavities, and more than 200 million people have at least one cavity in their mouth filled with dental amalgam. (7) The amalgam composite contains a mixture of mercury, powdered silver, tin, and copper. (8) Mercury, a highly toxic substance, has been linked to neurological problems, gastrointestinal problems, Alzheimer's disease, brain damage in children, cardiac dysfunction, impaired kidney functioning, and a host of other ailments. (9) Experts vehemently disagree on whether the mercury found in dental amalgam is in a large enough quantity to be harmful to humans; however, the evidence against using mercury in dental fillings continues to grow. (10) The use of mercury amalgam dental fillings is dangerous, and there needs to be national legislation to prohibit its use. This paper begins with a historical look at the use of mercury in dental fillings. Part III discusses the forms of mercury, while Part IV discusses the composition of mercury amalgams. Part V focuses on the mercury amalgam controversy and highlights the major arguments made by pro-amalgam and anti-amalgam activists. Parts VI and VII, respectively, explain why litigation and removal of fillings are insufficient remedies for the mercury amalgam problem. Part VIII addresses the environmental impact of mercury amalgams. Part IX examines legislation enacted in other countries that prohibit, limit, or discourage the use of mercury amalgams. Part X addresses the inadequacies of state-level legislation as a solution. Part XI proposes national legislation as the best solution to the mercury amalgam problem. Additionally, the final part recommends changes to the currently proposed national legislation. II. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW The use of mercury as dental filling material is a practice with a long history throughout the world. (11) The Chinese used a mercury-containing "silver paste" as early as the seventh century to repair decaying teeth. (12) Mercury intrigued the alchemists of China because it is the only metal that is a liquid at room temperature. (13) Furthermore, the ancient Chinese also knew that shavings of other metals such as copper, tin, and silver dissolved in liquid mercury. (14) By the early 1800s, the popularity of "silver paste" for dental fillings had spread to England and France, (15) eventually arriving in North America in the 1830s. (16) Joseph Bell, a British chemist, created the modern amalgam filling by combining melted coins and mercury. (17) The problem with this compound was that the impurities in the metal used for coins caused the amalgams to expand, which often caused the teeth to fracture. …