Silver dental fillings

Siblerud RL and Kienholz E. 1994. Evidence that mercury from silver dental fillings may be an etiological factor in multiple sclerosis. Sci Total Environ 142(3) 191-205. 

The metal is slowly oxidised by air at its boiling point, to give red mercury(II) oxide it is attacked by the halogens (which cannoi therefore be collected over mercury) and by nitric acid. (The reactivity of mercury towards acids is further considered on pp. 436, 438.) It forms amalgams—liquid or solid—with many other metals these find uses as reducing agents (for example with sodium, zinc) and as dental fillings (for example with silver, tin or copper). 

Daniel Gray perfected a stable bath from which indium can be plated simultaneously with other elements (90). Alloyed with precious metals, indium has been made into jewelry, alloyed with silver, it is sometimes used to plate silverware with a suiface resistant to tarnish in the form of an amalgam, it can be used for dental fillings (88, 89, 93) The portraits of Reich and Richter and much of the information about indium have been obtained through the kind assistance of Professor L. W. McCay of Princeton University and Professor O. Brunck, Rectoi of the Freiberg Academy. 

Silver is one of the basic elements that make up our planet. Silver is rare, but occurs naturally in the environment as a soft, "silver" colored metal. Because silver is an element, there are no man-made sources of silver. People make jewelry, silverware, electronic equipment, and dental fillings with silver in its metallic form. It also occurs in powdery white (silver nitrate and silver chloride) or dark-gray to black compounds (silver sulfide and silver oxide). Silver could be found at hazardous waste sites in the form of these compounds mixed with soil and/or water. Therefore, these silver compounds will be the main topic of this profile. Throughout the profile the various silver compounds will at times be referred to simply as silver. 

Solutions aren t necessarily liquids. Air is a solution of nitrogen, oxygen, and a few other minor gases. Mixtures of oxygen and nitrous oxide are also solutions. Dental fillings used to be made of silver amalgams, which are solid solutions of silver and mercury. 

Lorscheider FL, Vimy MJ, Summers AO. Mercury exposure from silver tooth fillings emerging evidence questions a traditional dental paradigm. FASEB J 1995 9(7) 504-8. 

Siblerud RL. 1992. A comparison of mental health of multiple sclerosis patients with silver/mercury dental fillings and those with fillings removed. Psychol Rep 70(3) 1139-1151. 

Hahn LJ, Kloiber R, Vimy MJ, Takahashi Y, Lorschei-der EL. Dental silver tooth fillings A source of mercury exposure revealed by whole-body image scan and tissue analysis. FASEB J 1989 3 2641-6. 

Dental amalgam Mercury, silver, tin, copper, zinc Dental fillings... 

Products and Uses A mixture of mercury with silver tin alloy in dental fillings, and for silvering mirrors. It is also a binder for precious metals such as gold and silver. 

Dental amalgam Silver 70% Ag, 18% Sn, 10% Cu, 2%Hg Easily worked Dental fillings... 

An amalgam is a mixture or alloy of mercury with another metal. For many years silver amalgams were used in dental fillings. 

Solders are composed primarily of gold, silver, or copper with and without tin and zinc. Other metallic materials used for dental fillings in place of amalgams include cold welded silver powder [5f ] as mentioned earUer. 

A(r) 200.59 density (at 20°C), 13.55 g/cm m.p., -38.8°C mercury and many of its compounds are toxic and tend to accumulate in the bodies of higher animals named for the planet Mercury, Latin hydrargyrum, liquid silver known since prehistoric times used in dental fillings, thermometers. 

Amalgam for dental filling is composed of 32% silver and 52% mercury, with tin, copper and zinc in addition. 

The tendency of mercury to form amalgams has been utilized in dentistry. An amalgam for dental fillings may be composed of 52% mercury, 35% silver and 13% tin. It is prepared by stirring a silver-tin alloy into mercury. The mixture is vibrated to a plastic mass, which is placed in the bored tooth and compressed. 

Solid solutions are also possible. In the chapter opening, we mentioned gold-silver alloys. Dental-filling alloy is a solution of mercury (a liquid) in silver (a solid), with small amounts of other metals. 

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