Thursday 30 April 1998
www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1998/04/30/nfil30.html
Pregnant women warned about dental fillings
By Celia Hall
Pregnant women should not have any new dental amalgam fillings or have old ones replaced because of a "theoretical risk" to unborn babies, the Department of Health advised yesterday.The Chief Dental Officer, Robin Wild, and the deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jeremy Metters, have written to all dentists and doctors with the new guidance on the advice of COT, the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment. Although the Department of Health said last night that the advice was precautionary, it will fuel the debate on the safety of amalgam fillings, which contain mercury.
COT believes that it is possible for mercury vapour, at its greatest concentration when fillings are inserted or replaced, to cross the placenta. However, scientists differ on the seriousness of the effects of fillings on humans and foetuses except in the "very few" cases of rare hypersensitivity to mercury. Dental treatment is free during pregnancy and for a year afterwards and many women use the opportunity to have their teeth fixed.A spokesman for the Department of Health said last night that until scientists could agree, COT had decided to act cautiously. It last considered the safety of amalgam fillings in 1986 when the committee concluded that their use was "free from risk of systemic toxicity". It said yesterday that its view had not changed.The British Dental Association said last night that the advice was common sense. It said: "Generally it is sensible to minimise health intervention during pregnancy. Dentists would approach the placement or removal of amalgam from the same precautionary viewpoint." It said that there was no evidence that foetuses had been affected.
