It may seem surprising, but dental amalgams with mercury are still a thing in Europe, and are more common than we think. Although they’re not as used as a few years ago, and some countries have even banned them, they are still a reality.
The new EU Regulation on mercury is being discussed today in Brussels, and its use in dental treatments is on the agenda. There were a lot of NGOs pressuring for it, and it’s great knowing that this discussion is finally happening.
We all know that mercury is poisonous, even in small doses, and it should be common sense that if there are viable alternatives to its use then the only right thing to do would be to stop using it.
Not only this, but its waste also has a huge environmental impact, and it pollutes the air, the soil and the water, making our exposure to it unavoidable. So, if we can ban it from dentistry, for example, then we’re already making a little bit of a difference.
I believe that we should (and can) be mindful of our environmental footprint in everything we do, and when working in dentistry this is especially important, since we deal with biological waste, toxic substances and chemical compounds.
Nowadays we have a lot of alternatives to mercury, such as composites and ionomers, which are cheaper, result in more aesthetically pleasing treatments and have the benefit of not being harmful to our health and planet. We only use these at the White Clinic® and I can say for a fact that they actually work much better than dental amalgams.
I hope the European Commission, the European Council and the Parliament do the right thing today. It will be a huge step towards a cleaner planet and an environmentally responsible practice of Dentistry.
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