OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS FOR DENTISTS

[Drsumitra]

Humans exposed to amalgam prenatally won’t suffer major health problems from the amalgam, according to a new study.

The study indicated that there were some detectable effects, however. Boys appeared to be adversely impacted while girls benefitted. These results appear to be coincidental because mercury isn’t beneficial to any human.

This study appeared in the November issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association.

The effects from mercury are compounded with children and fetuses because their brains are still in the process of developing.

There have been few studies done regarding this topic, according to the United States Food and Drug Administration. This study was only one section of comprehensive research analyzing prenatal mercury contact in the Seychelles Islands. The study indicated that eating fish did little, if any, harm to humans.

The data came from nearly 800 mothers in the Seychelles Islands. The babies began to be part of the research at 6 months old in 1989 and 1990. The mothers were given 12 fish meals each week. The children were then part of the study through age 19.

There were 711 children still part of the study when they were 66 months old. It was not difficult to analyze the dental history of the mothers, since dental coverage is free in the Seychelles Islands.

The researchers didn’t know everything they needed to know about the mothers’ dental history, however. They projected an upper and lower limit for amalgam exposure of each mother. They also looked at the dentition of the mothers 10 years after birth.

The research team studied many different factors of each child. They also weighed the outcomes based on all of these factors.

There was nothing significant found that would state that there was a correlation between amalgam surfaces and any of the possible outcomes. But there was a correlation between the sex of the child and the lower exposure limit of amalgam.

Despite the information that prenatal amalgam exposure doesn’t have a major impact on children, mothers would still be best served to hold off on amalgam restorations until their child is born.