# Mercury in fillings
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [November 20, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979 "2005-11-20T20:49:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@zaphod9977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zaphod9977)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/1 "2005-11-20T20:49:45Z")
Regarding the article about mercury in fillings, I used to work for a company that sold some mercury analyzers made by a British company called PS Analytical. I mostly sold the instrument that determined mercury concentrations in water, but they also had an instrument called the Sir Galahad (all the instruments had a Camalot theme) that determined mercury in a gas. I was told you could blow into it and see a mercury signal (if you had fillings). Someone with new silver fillings would actually peg the instrument. The purpose of the instrument was not to measure mercury on someone’s breath, but in gases such as natural gas.
There is a professor at the University of Georgia who points out that it is not really the mercury in the metallic state that is harmful to people, but organic mercury compounds such as methyl mercury and ethyl mercury. I forget the professor’s name, unfortunately.
I also read a journal article in the 70s where different Chinese herbs were tested for mercury. They did a test for total mercury and a test for how much would be leached using an acid solution which approximised stomach acid. Some of the herbs had alarming amounts of mercury but little was leached. Others had less total but most of it was leachable.
Anyway, some people have sensitivities to different things, (I have heard of allergic reactions to nickel in dentures) and probably most of the population can tolerate mercury amalgam fillings.
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/2 "2005-11-21T03:44:30Z")
> [@zaphod9977](#):
>
> There is a professor at the University of Georgia who points out that it is not really the mercury in the metallic state that is harmful to people
A professor _of chemistry_? :eek:
Perhaps you meant “in the liquid state” rather than “metallic state”, but elemental mercury as vapour is definitely [harmful to health](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning).
> [@](#):
>
> I forget the professor’s name, unfortunately
See?
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2005, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/3 "2005-11-21T15:58:08Z")
Here’s a [link](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_428.html) to the original.
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### Author:  [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/4 "2005-11-21T22:24:13Z")
I was one of the ones whose parents in the 80s, alarmed by the possible dangers of amalgam, had all amalgam fillings replaced with composites.
In the passed few years I’ve had a few more fillings (yeah, I tend to get a lot of cavities) and so I’ve done some research on the dangers of amalgam. In fact I may have even started a thread here which I’m too busy to search for at the moment.
It was my understanding that all the talk about the dangers of amalgam have been thoroughly debunked.
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/5 "2005-11-22T03:03:02Z")
If amalgam filings were dangerous in place, then having them removed when you didn’t have to for other reasons would be counter-productive - the process of removal would release far more mercury than just leaving them there.
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### Author:  [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2005, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/6 "2005-11-22T04:01:05Z")
> [@Moe](#):
>
> In fact I may have even started a thread here which I’m too busy to search for at the moment.
Yep. [Found it.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=39052&highlight=fillings)
Actually **Askance** , your point was addressed in that thread:
> [@LazarusLong42](#):
>
> The only problem with mercury amalgam fillings comes in heating them. You will note that if your dentist has to dig out a mercury amalgam filling with a drill, the area will be continuously cooled with water. Heating the alloy would allow mercury vapor to escape.
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### Author:  [@Giant\_Spongess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giant_Spongess)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2005, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/7 "2005-11-22T22:23:31Z")
> [@Khadaji](#):
>
> Here’s a [link](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_428.html) to the original.
That dude’s anecdote doesn’t make very much sense. Mercury poisoning is both slow and permanent, so how could he feel “instantly better”?
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/8 "2005-11-23T02:57:35Z")
> [@Giant\_Spongess](#):
>
> That dude’s anecdote doesn’t make very much sense. Mercury poisoning is both slow and permanent, so how could he feel “instantly better”?
Because his illness and cure were entirely psychosomatic?
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/9 "2005-11-23T02:59:08Z")
> [@Moe](#):
>
> You will note that if your dentist has to dig out a mercury amalgam filling with a drill, the area will be continuously cooled with water. Heating the alloy would allow mercury vapor to escape.
Intead you have a suspension of mercury powder in water in your mouth. Better than vapour, I guess, but …
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/10 "2005-11-23T05:51:32Z")
The mercury amalgam filling scare [debunked.](http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mercury.html)
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### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/11 "2005-11-24T14:23:57Z")
> [@Askance](#):
>
> Intead you have a suspension of mercury powder in water in your mouth. Better than vapour, I guess, but …
No, you have a suspension of amalgam powder in you mouth, which is much, much better than mercury vapour.
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/12 "2005-11-24T19:56:33Z")
> [@Askance](#):
>
> A professor _of chemistry_? :eek:
>
> Perhaps you meant “in the liquid state” rather than “metallic state”, but elemental mercury as vapour is definitely [harmful to health](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning).See?
Askance, please – we’re _fighting_ ignorance. Elemental mercury is a metal, mercury compounds aren’t. Liquid state has nothing to do with anything. And the Wikipedia article you linked to verifies that exposure to elemental mercury is mainly dangerous because it forms the organic compounds which are far more toxic than the metal.
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### Author:  [@Andrew\_Harrington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andrew_Harrington)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/13 "2005-11-25T21:48:41Z")
Fascinating but wrong. The cause of M Dissent’s obfuscation with mercury in his root canal is that mercury attracts negative elements in the cosmos. The ancient Egyptians knew this (ask one). These negative elements are known today by science collectively as ‘dark energy’. Scentists looking for dark energy should have looked in M Dissents root canal. Furthermore, according to Einstein, a concentration of dark energy can cause a shift in the space-time continuum which would explain ‘conversational lag’. This is exaggerated by the close proximity of M Dissent’s teeth to his brain. If his teeth were in his foot the effect would be markedly less. M Dissent should get his facts right.
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### Author:  [@Lotp3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lotp3)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/14 "2005-11-26T01:11:25Z")
I’m a dentist (but still a nice guy).
I’m a hospital based dentist, which basically means I only see people that are mentally and/or physically challenged, have head and neck cancer or recent stokes, heart attacks, etc.
I’m also salaried, which means that there is no financial incentive for me to talk someone into something that they don’t need.
The whole “mercury fillings are bad for you” thing is a hoax making a lot of dentists really, really rich. It plays on people’s basic lack of understanding Grade 9 chemistry.
Although some forms of mercury are hazardous, the mercury in amalgam is chemically bound to the other metals to make it stable and therefore safe for use in dental applications.
The difference between bound and unbound chemicals can be illustrated by a simple comparison. Elemental hydrogen is an explosive gas. Elemental oxygen is a gas that supports combustion. When combined, however, they form water, which has neither of these effects. Saying that amalgam will poison you is like saying that drinking water will make you explode and burst into flames.
Here is a good read on this issue, by (again) people that have no vested financial interest in the whole thing:
[http://www.ncahf.org/pp/amalgampp.html](http://www.ncahf.org/pp/amalgampp.html)
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-fillings/331979/15 "2005-11-28T03:57:06Z")
Hmm, perhaps I’m under a misapprehension here, I though Amalgam was a mixture not a compound, and so not bound at an elemental level to the other metals involved.
Doing some online reading shows it being described as an alloy, that is essentially a solution of the other metals in mercury as a solvent, rather than a true compound . I don’t know enough chemistry to say whether this means that drilling into it, for instance, would or would not release elemental mercury. But if it is a solution then describing it as a compound is incorrect; it’d be more like salt dissolved in water than like salt itself (a compound of Na and Cl).
I note that the Quackwatch article linked above says “removal of fillings temporarily raises body mercury load” so it would seem I’m likely to be right - even if amalgam does do harm, the process of removal of fillings does more than leaving them there.
BTW the Wiki article [Dental Amalgam Controversy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_amalgam_controversy) is basically an anti-amalgam polemic and there are warnings all over the article, someone more knowledgeable than I needs to clean it up.