Gm. Richardson, AN ASSESSMENT OF ADULT EXPOSURE AND RISKS FROM COMPONENTS AND DEGRADATION PRODUCTS OF COMPOSITE RESIN DENTAL MATERIALS, Human and ecological risk assessment, 3(4), 1997, pp. 683-697
Concerns have been expressed regarding the health risks posed by chemi
cal exposures from dental restorative materials. Dental materials are
exempted from the pre-market review provisions for medical devices in
Canada and, therefore, information on the risks of potential chemical
exposures arising from such materials is lacking. An assessment of com
ponents and degradation products of the class of dental materials know
n as composite resins was undertaken to provide such chemical exposure
and risk information. A probabilistic assessment was undertaken of ad
ult exposures to two principal components of composite resins-silica,
bisphenol-A glycidylmethacrylate (BIS-GMA) - and two degradation produ
cts of BIS-GMA - formaldehyde and methacrylic acid. Assuming that the
Canadian adult population with fillings had only composite resin mater
ials, results indicated that average exposures to formaldehyde and met
hacrylic acid were 10,000 times and 1,600,000 times lower, respectivel
y, than relevant reference doses. Worst case exposures were also well
below applicable reference levels. Risks posed by exposures to BIS-GMA
and silica could not be assessed due to a lack of published ingestion
reference doses for these substances. Gaps in the data base relating
to the risks posed by composite resin dental materials were discussed,
particularly in reference to the recently reported estrogenic potenti
al of other degradation products of BIS-GMA.