What is up with mercury fillings?!
Question: What is up with mercury fillings!?
I am a student attending a Dental Lab program and I couldn't find an answer to my questions about mercury in the lab!. I know that mercury was an element used in fillings before more efficient and less toxic alloys/polymers were invented or realized in the dental field!. My question is actually threefold:
Why was mercury used in the first place!? Using a liquid on a tooth to fill a gap and then cap it with a crown or polymer is smart, but surely people knew that swallowing metal is dangerous!
How were all the bubbles in the filling (that could potentially be trapped by the mercury itself) be removed to provide maximum strength!?
Is it still feasible to use mercury in dental offices and labs today I've heard that it isn't economically sound and it scares away customers, but I have not heard too much discouragement (maybe because it is illegal (if so please feel free to call me a dummy (even though my professors should have explained this anyway)))!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
Why was mercury used in the first place!? Using a liquid on a tooth to fill a gap and then cap it with a crown or polymer is smart, but surely people knew that swallowing metal is dangerous!
How were all the bubbles in the filling (that could potentially be trapped by the mercury itself) be removed to provide maximum strength!?
Is it still feasible to use mercury in dental offices and labs today I've heard that it isn't economically sound and it scares away customers, but I have not heard too much discouragement (maybe because it is illegal (if so please feel free to call me a dummy (even though my professors should have explained this anyway)))!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
Answers:
Firstly it's not straight mercury!. You're right to wonder how that would work because it would not!. It is rather a sort of colloid of solid metal grit floating around the mercury matrix!.
The compostion according to wiki is: 40% mercury, and 60% powder where the powder is made up of silver (~62%), tin (~26%), copper (~10%), and zinc (~2%)!.
Amalgam, aside from its poor aesthetics and toxic mercury content, is actually the best filling material we have!. It is the hardest wearing so is fantastic for occlusal molar surfaces that take a lot of stress and cannot be easily seen by others!.
We do still use them!. The most mercury exposure occurs during application and this can be minimised by taking some care!. After that they are generally fairly innocuous unless disturbed!. About a third of the mercury is squeezed out when filling!.
The dangers of mercury weren't known when amalgam was introduced!. It used to be used in many scientific applications without any special protection!. Some histopathology staining techniques involve heating mercury!. This used to be done without fear of inhalaing the clouds of mercury vapour!.
The bubbles in an amalgam filling are removed by packing the filling in tight!. Stregth is enhaced by use of various grit sizes and shapes in the powder fraction of the amalgam!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
The compostion according to wiki is: 40% mercury, and 60% powder where the powder is made up of silver (~62%), tin (~26%), copper (~10%), and zinc (~2%)!.
Amalgam, aside from its poor aesthetics and toxic mercury content, is actually the best filling material we have!. It is the hardest wearing so is fantastic for occlusal molar surfaces that take a lot of stress and cannot be easily seen by others!.
We do still use them!. The most mercury exposure occurs during application and this can be minimised by taking some care!. After that they are generally fairly innocuous unless disturbed!. About a third of the mercury is squeezed out when filling!.
The dangers of mercury weren't known when amalgam was introduced!. It used to be used in many scientific applications without any special protection!. Some histopathology staining techniques involve heating mercury!. This used to be done without fear of inhalaing the clouds of mercury vapour!.
The bubbles in an amalgam filling are removed by packing the filling in tight!. Stregth is enhaced by use of various grit sizes and shapes in the powder fraction of the amalgam!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
read, and learn ^_^
http://www!.naturalnews!.com/016544!.html
there are many other articles on this site about mercury- just search it in the keyword search at the top right!.
I hope this helps!Www@Answer-Health@Com
http://www!.naturalnews!.com/016544!.html
there are many other articles on this site about mercury- just search it in the keyword search at the top right!.
I hope this helps!Www@Answer-Health@Com