Amalgam Free: The Healthy Alternative

Natural Dentistry Equals Amalgam Free
Patients come from all around the San Diego area to visit Dr. Mafi because she practices natural dentistry. The controversial and potentially unsafe nature of amalgam makes it incompatible with Dr. Mafi’s standards. Here in her San Diego office, Dr. Mafi uses only amalgam free materials.

She has taken this position for the following reasons:

1. The beauty of the natural tooth cannot be restored by amalgam. Only amalgam free dental materials, such as ceramics, can closely mimic the look of enamel.
2. Using amalgam free dentistry saves more healthy tissue.
   • Amalgam fillings require a specifically sized hole to be drilled inside of the tooth. Thus healthy tissue must be removed along with the cavity in order to open a hole large enough for the amalgam filling.
   • Through the use of amalgam free ceramics, only the removal of the cavity is required. Healthy tissues of the tooth are saved.
3. Dr. Mafi is a member of International Academy of Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT). IAOMT is an organization of dentists, physicians and scientists who believe that the amount of mercury leaking from amalgam is unsafe.

Here in her San Diego dentist office, Dr. Mafi does perform amalgam removal under the following conditions:

1. A filling needs to be removed due to cracks on amalgam.
2. When a cosmetic or restorative procedure requires the amalgam removal.
3. If the amalgam’s removal is recommended by a physician.
4. At a patient’s own request.

Take Caution When Removing Amalgam
Natural dentists use only amalgam alternatives. But in consideration of patient safety, Dr. Mafi has several words of caution to those contemplating removing their amalgam fillings.

• Amalgam removal is not recommended for pregnant women.
• At her dentist office here in San Diego, Dr. Mafi uses Rubber Dam and Industrial Strength Vacuum in addition to regular dental suction, when removing amalgam fillings, in order to minimize patient exposure to mercury particles and vapor. However, amalgam removal of several teeth must be done over a period of several weeks, or even months, to avoid sudden exposure of the patient’s body to the huge levels of mercury vapor and particles produced during drilling.

Why Amalgam Free?
Here at Dr. Mafi’s San Diego dental practice, the patients’ overall health and wellbeing is her primary focus. She specializes in natural dentistry, using only materials that are known to be safe and non-toxic. Amalgam is not one of these materials.

Amalgam is more than 150 years old. Since its introduction to dentists in the 19th century, it has been the subject of controversial dispute. Because amalgam contains about 50% mercury, which is a known poisonous metal, the world’s first national dental organization, American Society of Dental Surgeons (ASDS), banned its members from using amalgam. Like Dr. Mafi, the ASDS advocated amalgam free dentistry.

However, amalgam is cheap and easy to use - reason enough for dentists to justify using it. Those dentists who advocated amalgam’s use created the American Dental Association (ADA) in 1859. The ADA exists today as a powerful political tool for dentists and related industries.

U.S. Government and Amalgam
Based on the Dental Material Fact Sheet of the California Dental Association, amalgam contains 43 – 54 % mercury. Studies have proved that mercury vapor almost constantly leaks from amalgam fillings. Furthermore, leakage intensifies after eating, drinking hot liquid, and chewing gum.

The FDA and the NDRI do not dispute the fact that mercury vapor leaking from amalgam is the main source of mercury in the human body. However, both agencies claim there is no evidence proving this leakage is large enough to be a threat to patients’ health.

In a 1996 statement, Health Canada took the same position as the FDA, however it recommended Canadian dentists avoid using amalgam on children, pregnant women and people with kidney disease. But it still did not fully advocate amalgam free dentistry.

In the U.S., the EPA has taken a different position. Like other branches of government, it claims that amalgam is safe and that the mercury it contains is no danger to patients’ health. However, the EPA has expressed concern regarding the disposal of waste amalgam. In other words: The EPA’s stance is that the presence of amalgam in sewage lines is bad – but it is okay to have it in our mouths.

Amalgam & Law
Although patients who have claimed harm by amalgam have in recent years filed several lawsuits and class action cases, the safety of amalgam has never been examined in a court of law.

Because targets of the most of these lawsuits were the ADA and the dentist who treated those patients and, because the ADA does not manufacture amalgam, ADA lawyers convinced the courts to dismiss many, if not all of the legal challenges to amalgam. Therefore, amalgam’s safety has never been examined in a court of law.

Amalgam Legislations
On April 8, 2003 Representative Diane E Watson (D- CA) and Rep. Dan Burton (R- IN) introduced a bill to phase out the use of amalgam by 2007 This bill recognizes amalgam to be dangerous to public health. ADA is among the opponents of the bill.

Watson Law
The following is taken from the web site of U.S. House of Representatives Reform Committee, subcommittee of Human Rights and Wellness:
“Mercury is one of the most toxic substances found in nature, second only to radioactive materials,” stated Chairman Burton. “It is imperative for Californians and all Americans to have full disclosure of the serious risks posed by mercury-containing amalgams, so they are better enabled to make informed choices about the types of dental restorative material that is used in their treatment.”

Then Chairman Burton continues:
“In 1992, the California Legislature passed the Watson Law, written by the Subcommittee’s Ranking Member Congresswoman Diane Watson (D-CA) – then a California State Senator - that requires the California Dental Board to prepare and distribute a simple Fact Sheet about the risks and efficacies of mercury-amalgam dental fillings. When the Board still had not complied in 2001, nine years after enactment of the law, the public outcry led the California State Legislature to dissolve the existing Dental Board and create a new one. While the new Board has held hearings on the safety of mercury-containing amalgam filings in 2002, their efforts to create a simple consumer friendly Fact Sheet have again ground to a halt under apparent pressure from the California Dental Association.”

For more information regarding amalgam visit iaomt.org