why are mercury containing amalgam tooth fillings considered safe despite mercury being extremely toxic?
In: 16
Pure elemental mercury is liquid at room temperature. If you were to [swallow liquid mercury](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5001828/), you’d probably be okay. Pure elemental mercury mostly just goes through your digestive tract and out the other end.
[It’s not that uncommon for amalgam fillings to come out and be swallowed.](https://www.collinsdental.com/blog/harmful-mercury-filling-swallowed/)It’s not terribly dangerous if this happens- it’s just passed through your digestive tract, and comes out the other end.
Mercury vapor is much more dangerous than swallowing mercury. If you get an amalgam filling removed, that releases mercury vapor. There’s not really enough of it to do much to you, but dentists who put in and remove lots of amalgam fillings might be a different story.
Latest Answers