Amalgam fillings don't affect children's brain development, says study

Dental amalgam tooth fillings do not adversely affect children's brain
development and neurological status, researchers report in the
February issue of
The Journal of the American Dental Association.

The authors of the report-members of a joint team from the University
of Lisbon,
Portugal, and the University of Washington, Seattle-studied the
possible
neurological effects of dental amalgam tooth restorations. Dental
amalgam
contains elemental mercury combined with other metals such as silver,
copper,
tin and zinc to form a safe, stable alloy. Dental amalgam has been
used for
generations to fill decayed teeth that might otherwise have been lost.

Beginning in 1997 and continuing for seven years, the authors studied
507
Portuguese children aged 8 through 12 years who received either
amalgam or
resin-based composite fillings. They conducted routine clinical
neurological
examinations to assess two types of neurological signs: hard
(indicating damage
to specific neural structures) and soft (subtle signs of central
nervous system
dysfunction that likely point to immature sensory-motor skills rather
than to
any structural damage in the brain). The researchers also evaluated
the children
for presence of tremor.

After seven years, the two groups of children did not differ in terms
of the
presence or absence of hard signs or tremor. They also didn't differ
in terms of
the presence or absence or severity of soft signs at any point. Also,
as
expected in healthy children, the severity of any neurological soft
signs
diminished as the children aged.

"Even at the levels of amalgam exposure in this study (a mean of
7.7-10.7
amalgam surfaces per subject across the seven years of follow-up),"
the authors
write, "[we] conclude that exposure to mercury from dental amalgam
does not
adversely affect neurological status.

"These data indicate the absence of a generalized negative effect on
children's
nervous system functions stemming from the presence of dental
amalgam," they
continue, "and while we cannot rule out potential adverse reactions in
individual children, we found no indications of any."

Source: American Dental Association
http://www.physorg.com/news120484092.html