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References

Burke FJT, Ravaghi V, Mackenzie L In vitro cavity and crown preparations and direct restorations: a comparison of performance at the start and end of the FD programme. Br Dent J. 2017; 222:605-611 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2017.362
Jebur N, Vinall-Collier K, Umair AA, Aggarwal VR. Dental amalgam teaching phase-out – a step too soon? Foundation trainees' experience of amalgam use in dental school compared to practice: a mixed-methods survey. Br Dent J. 2023; 235:329-334 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-023-6228-4
European Commission. Proposal for a revision of the Mercury Regulation. 2023. https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/proposal-revision-mercury-regulation_en (accessed January 2024)
Burke FJT. The most user-friendly bond is…. Dent Update. 2023; 50:721-722
Burke FJT, MacKenzie L, Shortall ACC. Survival rates of resin composite restorations in loadbearing situations in posterior teeth. Dent Update. 2019; 46:525-536
Burke FJT, MacKenzie L, Sands P. Fifty years of glass ionomers: are the latest variants suitable for restoring back teeth?. Dent Update. 2023; 50:437-446
Miletić I, Baraba A, Jukic Krmek S Five-year performance of glass-hybrid and nano-hybrid restoratives: multi-centre clinical trial. J Dent Res. 2023; 102:(Special Issue C)
Hickel R, Mesinger S, Opdam N Revised FDI criteria for evaluating direct and indirect dental restorations-recommendations for its clinical use, interpretation, and reporting. Clin Oral Investig. 2023; 27:2573-2592 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-022-04814-1

End of the Road for Dental Amalgam?

From Volume 51, Issue 1, January 2024 | Pages 7-8

Authors

Ewen McColl

BSc(Hons), BDS, MFDS, FDS RCPS, MCGDent, MRD RCS Ed, MClinDent, FDS RCS(Rest Dent), FHEA, FDTF(Ed)

Director of Clinical Dentistry; Peninsula Dental School, University of Plymouth

Articles by Ewen McColl

Email Ewen McColl

FJ Trevor Burke

DDS, MSc, MDS, MGDS, FDS (RCS Edin), FDS RCS (Eng), FCG Dent, FADM,

Articles by FJ Trevor Burke

Article

Readers will be aware of the Minamata Agreement, signed in 2013, in which 147 countries around the world agreed to minimize mercury use in a wide variety of fields, such as, lighting, fertilizers, and, of course, dental amalgam. This resulted in a ban, from 1 July 2018, on the use of amalgam in pregnant women and children under the age of 15 years. Some dental schools had, by then, on the surface, stopped teaching the concepts of resistance and retention form, and, as a result, a proportion of new graduates had no notion of how to retain an amalgam restoration in a tooth!1 This lack of preparedness is a particular concern in the UK as amalgam is still in widespread use among dental practitioners2.

There is some clarity now, in the form of a European Union draft document to phase out all amalgam use by 1 January 2025. These recent EU proposals3 suggest:

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