Dental amalgam fillings and the amount of organic mercury in human saliva

We stud led differences in the amounts of organic and inorganic mercury in saliva samples between amalgam and nonamalgam human study groups, The amoun t of organic and inorganic mercury in whole saliva was measured in 187 adul t study subjects. The mercury contents were determined by cold-vapor atomic absorption spectrometry. The amount of organic and inorganic mercury in pa raffin-stimulated saliva was significantly higher (p <0.001) in subjects wi th dental amalgam fillings (n = 88) compared to the nonamalgam study groups (n = 43 and n = 56): log(e) (organic mercury) was linearly related to log, (inorganic mercury, r(2) = 0.52), Spearman correlation coefficients of ino rganic and organic mercury concentrations with the number of amalgam-filled tooth surfaces were 0.46 and 0.27, respectively. Our results are compatibl e with the hypothesis that amalgam fillings may be a continuous source of o rganic mercury, which is more toxic than inorganic mercury, and almost comp letely absorbed by the human intestine. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Ba sel.