Clinical focus: Updated resources on mercury and amalgam

Recently, the ADA has reviewed and updated its resources on dental mercury and amalgam. The review has been prompted by:

• the ratification by Australia in December 2021 of the provisions of the Minamata Convention of the United Nations Environment Program, (1) which commit Australia to a phase-down of dental amalgam;
• the publication of Amalgam (Part 1): safe management of waste and mercury (September 2021) by the FDI World Dental Federation;
  
  
• the publication of Amalgam (Part 2): safe use and phase down of dental amalgam (September 2021) by the FDI World Dental Federation;
  
  
• the publication Amalgam separators and waste best management (July 2020) by the American Dental Association;
  
  
• the degree of repetition among the various documents; and
  
  
• one of the documents using terms and definitions which are not used in Australia.
  
  

Prior to the review, the ADA had:

• two Policy Statements on dental amalgam:
  
  
• 6.11 – Dental amalgam waste management (August 2021)
  
  
• 6.18 – Safety of dental amalgam (November 2020)
  
  
• and two Guidelines:
  
  
• Amalgam waste management (August 2021)
  
  
• Dental mercury hygiene (November 2021)
  
  

Arising from the review, the ADA now has two documents dealing with mercury and amalgam:

• an updated Policy Statement 6.18, which incorporates the text from Amalgam (Part 2): safe use and phase down of dental amalgam. The revision refers to the Minamata Convention, removes the National Health and Medical Research Council reference (which no longer exists) and generally improves the layout; and
  
  
• a single Guideline titled ADA Guidelines for clinical handling of dental amalgam, based on the relevant parts of the two FDI documents, Policy Statement 6.11 and a general review. The section on ‘A practical guide for dental clinics’ has been extensively revised with the assistance of Mr Bill Clark (Cattani Australasia), in order to make it relevant to Australian practices. Policy Statement 6.11 has been withdrawn.

Reference

1. Minamata-Convention-booklet-Sep2019-EN.pdf (mercuryconvention.org)