Ballal V. Controversy of silver amalgam as a restorative material. World J Stomatol 2015; 4(2): 35-36 [DOI: 10.5321/wjs.v4.i2.35]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Vasudev Ballal, BDS, MDS, PhD, Professor, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal University, Manipal 576104, Karnataka, India. drballal@yahoo.com
Research Domain of This Article
Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Stomatol. May 20, 2015; 4(2): 35-36 Published online May 20, 2015. doi: 10.5321/wjs.v4.i2.35
Controversy of silver amalgam as a restorative material
Vasudev Ballal
Vasudev Ballal, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal University, Manipal 576104, Karnataka, India
Author contributions: Ballal V contributed to the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Vasudev Ballal, BDS, MDS, PhD, Professor, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal University, Manipal 576104, Karnataka, India. drballal@yahoo.com
Telephone: +91-98-80626167
Received: January 5, 2015 Peer-review started: January 7, 2015 First decision: January 20, 2015 Revised: February 2, 2015 Accepted: April 27, 2015 Article in press: April 30, 2015 Published online: May 20, 2015
Abstract
Silver amalgam contains mercury leading to concerns about the potential toxic effects of amalgam on the health of dental patients. The debate over the toxicity of silver amalgam restorations has divided the dental profession for over a century. The use of amalgam restorations for anterior teeth have been declining worldwide due to patient’s safety concerns and preference for tooth colored restorations. Nevertheless, amalgam has served the dental profession for decades and benefited hundreds of millions of patients because of its longevity as a dental restorative material. Amalgam is still the World’s most widely used restorative material for posterior teeth.
