Answer to Question #112032 in General Chemistry for Elizabeth

Question

What is a dental amalgam and why are they controversial? What is the current standard for dental amalgams? What are the arguments against dental amalgams? Please post 1 paragraph (minimum of 7 sentences)

Answer 1

Dental amalgam is a professional name for one of the filling materials, the properties of which use the ability of mercury to dissolve certain metals.On July 28, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its final rule on encapsulated dental amalgam classifying amalgam and its component parts, elemental mercury and powder alloy, as a class II medical device

In dentistry, copper and silver amalgam are used. Currently, almost all countries use silver amalgam with a significant addition of copper, the so-called high-copper amalgams.

Process its formation is to mix mercury with metallic alloy produced by industry in the form of metal sawdust, 36 microns in size. They mutually diffuse with the formation of chemical intermetallic compounds. So dental amalgam is formed as a result of interactions of mercury with a metal alloy.

The disadvantages of amalgam are poor adhesion, high thermal conductivity, shrinkage and the presence of mercury in its composition, which, as you know, can have a toxic effect.