dentist

The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) is commending the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its statement yesterday that warns high-risk groups about the potential for adverse health outcomes from dental amalgam mercury fillings. However, the IAOMT, who has demanded more stringent protection from dental mercury for more than three decades, is now calling on the FDA for even more protection for all dental patients. Yesterday, the FDA updated its recommendations concerning dental amalgam fillings and cautioned that “harmful health effects of mercury vapor released from the device” could impact high-risk populations. Susceptible groups advised to avoid getting mercury amalgam fillings include pregnant women and fetuses; women planning to become pregnant; nursing women and their newborns and infants; children; people with neurological disease such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease; people with impaired kidney function; and people with known heightened sensitivity (allergy) to mercury or other components of dental amalgam.