Amalgam or Silver fillings have been used by dentists for many years.
Amalgams consist of approximately 50% mercury, a known neurotoxin, however the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers these fillings to be safe for adults and children older than 6. Previous research has found that exposure to magnetic fields of MRI could cause the mercury to leak from amalgam fillings and this concern has been heightened by the recent arrival of ultra-high-strength 7-T scanners in the clinic. The stronger magnetic field of the 7-T MRI yields higher anatomical detail but its effects of amalgam dental fillings have not been studied.
"In a completely hardened amalgam, approximately 48 hours after placing on teeth, mercury becomes attached to the chemical structure, and the surface of the filling is covered with an oxide film layer," said the study's lead author, Selmi Yilmaz, Ph.D., a dentist and faculty member at Akdeniz University in Antalya, Turkey. "Therefore, any mercury leakage is minimal."
In hopes of learning more about this, they evaluated mercury released from dental amalgam after 7-T and 1.5-T MRI in teeth that had been extracted from patients. Although the 7-T is FDA approved, it is typically unavailable, with most clinics still using the 1.5-T.
Dr. Yilmaz found very high values of mercury after ultra-high field MRI. However it is still not clear how much is absorbed by the body.
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