Controlled trials of dental amalgam are needed

BMJ 1994;309:1161 (29 October)

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Controlled trials of dental amalgam are needed

EDITOR, - The response of almost every writer from the dentalprofession to the suggestion that dental amalgam is hazardousto health is that adopted by Ivar A Mjor: to sit back and challengethe opponents of amalgam to produce proof of harm.¹ Not onlyis this notoriously difficult to do, as in all cases of chroniclow level toxicity, but it is fundamentally the wrong approach.The initial question is not a scientific one at all but a questionof the burden of proof.

With any procedure that may be hazardous the onus of proof mustshift. It is up to the advocates of that procedure to show itssafety, not for its opponents to prove damage. The charge againstthe dental profession is that this has never satisfactorilybeen done. It is not enough to rely on comparisons with staffwho handle mercury, but who absorb it in . . . [Full text of this article]

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