Letter: Letters: Teeth of the problem

From WILLY GOLDBERG

Ken Gale is wrong on two points (Letters, 10 October):

First, amalgam fillings are not inert. Longitudinal studies have shown
that the mercury in them gradually leaches out over a period of years.

Secondly, in stating that a current only flows between dissimilar metals,
he fails to note that dissimilar metals are present in the same filling,
and that the peaks and troughs all over its surface behave like myriads
of small galvanic cells.

Metal fillings are bathed in saliva, which acts as the conducting medium
between different fillings, and the polarity (positive or negative) between
the filling and the buccal membrane can be measured with the Vegadent 706
tester.

Gale appears to be unaware of the considerable research on the subject,
and I refer him to Silver Dental Fillings – The Toxic Time Bomb, by Sam
Ziff, and Prophylaxis and Therapy of Oral Currents, by Helmut Schimmel.

Willy Goldberg London