U.S. Department of Defense
A seven-year review and comment period has led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to determine that the mercury powder used to fill dental cavities poses little danger to people's health.
The agency has raised the general risk classification for the filling compound known as dental amalgam from "low risk" to "moderate risk" and cautioned dentists to use amalgam only in well-ventilated areas. However, as FDA Dental Products Director Susan Runner told the Associated Press, "The best available scientific evidence supports the conclusion that patients with dental amalgam fillings are not at risk for mercury-associated adverse health effects."
The American Dental Association welcomed the FDA announcement, but not everyone is happy.
The group National Counsel for Consumers for Dental Choice reached a settlement with the FDA last year to have health warnings on dental amalgam packaging expanded. According to the counsel's Charles G. Brown, the agency broke that agreement by failing to require even more specific statements about how high levels of mercury can harm children and fetuses.
"Bowing to the dental products industry, FDA for the first time in its history pulled a warning about neurological harm to children," Brown said in a prepared statement. "This contemptuous attitude toward children and the unborn will not go unanswered. We will see FDA in court."
For its part, the ADA echoed the FDA in claiming that decades of research supported the safety of dental amalgam made from mercury, tin, silver and copper powders.
"The FDA has left the decision about dental treatment right where it needs to be—between the dentist and the patient," said ADA President John Findley. "This decision underscores what the ADA has long supported—a discussion between dentists and patients about the full range of treatment options to help patients make educated decisions regarding their dental care."
Comments
The FDA have sold the people out on this one.
They are not the protectors of the public, but have been bought off and are corrupt. They and the ADA fear lawsuits due to the millions of mercury amalgam fillings that have been placed in peoples mouths over many, many years. Mercury fillings are poisonous and do terrible damage to the nervous systemen. The FDA need to clean up their corrupt act.
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