Amalgam. III. Mercury release from amalgam restorations

Patients are exposed to mercury during dental treatment. The major source of exposure to mercury is, however the release of mercury both as vapour and as dissolved mercury, from amalgam restorations. With regard to the dissolution in saliva, corrosion of the restorations appears to be of importance. The modern amalgams have a lower corrosion rate than older ones but emit probably more mercury vapour. Different measurement methods show a rather varying amount of mercury release. The amount of mercury in the tracheal air is of more significance than that in the mouth air. It has been stated that from restorations made of old brands of amalgam 73% of the mercury is disappeared, but according to our estimation utmost 2% will disappear from a large restoration of modern brands.