Customers for Dental Alternative has engineered a tectonic shift in dentistry — fashionable dentists now not place mercury-based fillings (dental amalgam) — and conscious customers shun them. Not like a decade in the past, neither the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) nor the World Well being Group (WHO) defends amalgam — and the main dental merchandise corporations stopped making amalgam.
Customers for Dental Alternative and I are in our fifteenth yr of partnership. I’ve watched my good friend Charlie Brown construct a powerhouse nationwide and worldwide drive, altering dentistry 180 levels from mercury-based to mercury-free.
However the authorities bureaucracies (federal and state) and the insurance coverage behemoths haven’t modified. Amalgam continues for the powerless — our servicewomen and servicemen, the institutionalized, low-income households, and Native Individuals.
To finish this morally unacceptable system of alternative for the wealthy and mercury for the poor, as soon as once more, I put my cash the place my mouth is. Till midnight on August 23, 2025, I’ll match your reward to Customers for Dental Alternative — greenback for greenback. I’m on this trigger full bore — and ask you to affix me.
These Grey-Coloured Dental Fillings Are 50% Mercury
In an audacious transfer of brazen deception, the American Dental Affiliation (ADA) — an amalgam patentholder — promoted dental amalgam as “silver fillings” and doubled down on the cover-up by adopting a rule of conduct forbidding dentists from discussing the (apparent) toxicity of mercury.
• The reality behind silver fillings — Properly, I’m right here to let you know that “silver” filling is definitely a mercury filling. Mercury just isn’t solely poisonous, however probably the most vaporous of heavy metals. So, which means mercury can attain the mind, the kidneys, the placenta, and the breast milk.
• The established order is enforced — The ADA’s callous and irresponsible promotion of mercury-based dentistry — when the options are technically higher now and far more tooth pleasant — continues to have extreme well being, office, and environmental penalties.
• Vote along with your pockets — Trendy dentists by no means use dental amalgam. In case your dentist nonetheless locations amalgam in any dental affected person, it’s time to take your small business elsewhere.
Customers for Dental Alternative Introduced a Revolution to American Dentistry
When Charlie and I began working collectively, the federal authorities and the states sat firmly on dentistry issues, within the pocket of the ADA — equally, worldwide businesses are within the pocket of the pro-mercury Fédération Dentaire Internationale (FDI) World Dental Federation.
• Main victories have been gained — With tenacity, Charlie constructed a worldwide nonprofit powerhouse — and with strategic brilliance, discovered the trail to dismantle the pro-amalgam machine. Amalgam is now banned throughout Europe, and in a number of African and Asian nations.
Each the FDA and the WHO switched from amalgam advocates to amalgam opponents. Readers, convincing both the FDA or WHO to modify from help to opposition of a product is extraordinarily uncommon; altering each of those impenetrable colossi is, properly, unprecedented in my expertise.
• Numerous lives had been saved from mercury — Hundreds of thousands and thousands and thousands of American customers — and billions worldwide — had been spared from the well being threat of mercury-based fillings. Three a long time in the past, the late mercury-free dental pioneer Dr. Hal Huggins requested Charlie to assist a billion individuals — it now seems he has carried out so.
• There are nonetheless battles to be fought — However as I clarify beneath, we wouldn’t have mercury-free dentistry for all. We have to preserve the momentum going to banish use of this primitive, pre-Civil Warfare pollutant from our planet.
So, for the fifteenth consecutive yr, I’m stepping as much as match each greenback donated to Customers for Dental Alternative from now till midnight your time on August 23, 2025 (as much as $150,000 whole). Let’s give Customers for Dental Alternative the assets it wants and deserves. Chances are you’ll click on this button beneath to donate on-line:
Or chances are you’ll mail a test to:
Customers for Dental Alternative
727 fifteenth St. NW, Suite 701
Washington, DC 20005
Customers for Dental Alternative Stands Up for Powerless Dental Customers
Testifying earlier than Congress a number of years in the past, the witness for esteemed Nationwide Affiliation for the Development of Coloured Folks (NAACP) stated American dentistry is “alternative for the wealthy and mercury for the poor.” Customers for Dental Alternative was created with the imaginative and prescient that if customers have a alternative — an knowledgeable alternative — they’ll reject the mercury filling in favor of the unhazardous one.
• The selection nonetheless isn’t given to all — Many customers are powerless to decide on. Troopers and sailors, institutionalized people, individuals caught in authorities applications just like the Indian Well being Service (IHS), and other people saddled with cut-rate insurance coverage that favor mercury.
• Victims of fraudulent campaigning — The talked about customers and their kids are generally victims of pro-mercury dentists who falsely inform sufferers amalgam is “silver.” These are victims of callous authorities chief dental officers who couldn’t care much less that the FDA warns towards amalgam use in kids and different high-risk populations, victims of dental insurance coverage corporations that squeeze each greenback from customers with out regard to security.
Right here’s some highlights from the agenda of Customers for Dental Alternative to finish amalgam for all:
Customers for Dental Alternative’s Initiative to Make Federal Authorities Applications Mercury-Free
Regardless of the FDA security communication warning towards amalgam use in kids and different high-risk populations, the only largest purchaser of amalgam within the U.S. is our personal authorities. Its dental applications proceed to implant dental mercury into American Indians, into our troopers and sailors, into institutionalized individuals, and into households on Medicaid.
• Authorities lastly gathered and listened — After years of pounding on doorways, Customers for Dental Alternative lastly obtained the federal government to the desk for a whole day final yr in Washington, DC to speak about ending amalgam.
Assembled had been authorities officers representing the FDA, the Environmental Safety Company (EPA), the State Division, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH), and the IHS who met with a broad vary of environmental, medical, dental, science, and client leaders.
• New applications have been created — Now, we see outcomes. Customers for Dental Alternative satisfied the IHS to publish its “Plan to Section Down the Use of Dental Amalgam amongst American Indians/Alaska Natives 2010 – 2030 (or till dental amalgam is phased out within the U.S.).”
It consists of such efficient measures as “Present steerage to IHS, tribal, and concrete dental applications to stop the usage of dental amalgam on deciduous (main) enamel,” “Conduct a nationwide webinar for IHS dental suppliers concerning the 2020 FDA Security Communication and this phase-down plan,” and “Develop insurance policies that cut back the quantity of dental amalgam bought by IHS service items.”
• The ultimate push is on the horizon — Now, Customers for Dental Alternative calls on Secretary of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to go additional. Certainly, Charlie wrote a visitor column within the Tampa Bay Occasions urging Secretary Kennedy to finish amalgam use in federal applications with the “stroke of a pen” — that’s, ban purchases of mercury-based dental fillings by federal well being businesses.
Then, 150 dental professionals signed onto a letter calling on Secretary Kennedy to finish dental amalgam in authorities applications.
Your contributions make a distinction as Customers for Dental Alternative tackles the obstacles to mercury-free dentistry for individuals with no alternative from each angle.
Customers for Dental Alternative’s Initiative to Make State Authorities Applications Mercury-Free
To impact change in our federal constitutional system, it takes initiatives each in Washington and in state capitals. So, Customers for Dental Alternative has launched three state tasks to function fashions for the remainder of the nation:
• Florida — Assembling 4 nationwide organizations, Customers for Dental Alternative filed a petition to Tallahassee to finish amalgam use in Florida Medicaid. They’d a Zoom assembly with my good friend, famend Florida Surgeon Basic Joseph Ladapo. Greater than a dozen Florida dentists signed a letter asking for motion.
• Rhode Island — Customers for Dental Alternative is constructing a grassroots motion within the Ocean State, discovering actual curiosity amongst environmental teams, racial justice advocates, and dental professionals.
• California — Customers for Dental Alternative is working with the Alameda County (Oakland) Client Affairs Fee to empower client alternative.
Cleansing Up the Dental Business
It’s not sufficient to work with authorities authorities in phasing out dental amalgam. It’s necessary to focus on and rework the amalgam market, too. In that regard, Customers for Dental Alternative has scored main victories:
• Reducing off amalgam provide — Customers for Dental Alternative already pushed main U.S. dental merchandise makers Dentsply and Envista (Kerr) out of the amalgam enterprise. Right now, the main American corporations make solely mercury-free fillings.
• Reducing off amalgam demand — As Customers for Dental Alternative wins bans and restrictions on amalgam, the demand for this mercury product continues to drop. International locations banning amalgam sweep throughout Asia, notably the Philippines and Indonesia. In Africa, Tanzania and Gabon have additionally banned amalgam, in addition to within the Caribbean (St. Kitts and Nevis).
• Reducing off the amalgam commerce — The latest European Union (EU) regulation not solely bans amalgam use, but in addition bans amalgam imports and exports, chopping off dental mercury peddlers — each within the EU and overseas — from many markets.
Successful Amalgam Bans
When Charlie went to Brussels in 2011 to launch the marketing campaign that led to victory, issues had been unhealthy — solely two international locations within the EU had been excited by mercury-free dentistry.
• Europe was the most important consumer of amalgam on the planet — Governmental officers learn from speaking factors provided by the pro-mercury Council of European Dentists (CED). Charlie assembled a crew from the 27 member nations. His crew returned repeatedly to the federal capital, Brussels, went to the nationwide capitals, and arranged a response to a European Fee ballot demonstrating that 88% of Europeans need mercury-free dentistry.
• Laborious work and perseverance repay — To run the marketing campaign in Europe, Charlie appointed Florian Schulze, chief of an thrilling new non-governmental group (NGO) in Berlin, the European Community for Environmental Medication. Florian and his NGO engineered the breakthrough our trigger wanted — a regulation in 2017 banning amalgam for kids, pregnant ladies, and nursing moms.
The purpose, then, upshifted to mercury-free dentistry for all — a path requiring a Biblical seven extra years of grueling challenges. The end in 2024 — a vote to ban amalgam was 27 nations for, zero nations towards. What began with two international locations in help in 2011 morphed into unanimity in 2024. The European Parliament supported the ban 98% to 2% — think about such a near-unanimity from a legislative physique!
• Governments all over the world are following — Along with the rising variety of international locations banning all amalgam, many international locations — from Vietnam to Mauritius to Tunisia — have banned amalgam use for high-risk populations like kids.
Now, one other main nation, China, has joined them. China issued a brand new regulation in 2024 that in translation says, “Dental amalgam is prohibited to be used in dental remedy of deciduous enamel, sufferers underneath 15 years of age, and pregnant and lactating ladies, except the dentist deems it crucial primarily based on the wants of the affected person.”
Showdown in November
The World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, the worldwide coalition Charlie chairs, has satisfied the governments to shift the main target of the Minamata Conference on Mercury from “part down amalgam” to “part out amalgam.”
• Getting ready for the faceoff — In 2022, the Events adopted the Youngsters’s Modification addressing an finish date for amalgam for kids and for pregnant and breastfeeding ladies. In 2023 the Events adopted a part out of dental amalgam as a worldwide purpose.
In November 2025, the Minamata Conference on Mercury reconvenes — on the prime of the agenda is whether or not to shift treaty language from part out amalgam as a purpose to part out of amalgam as a authorized mandate. Each the Africa continent, by unanimity, and the European Union have already referred to as for help of this modification — and help is rising throughout the globe.
• The struggle to ban amalgam involves a head — Charlie will lead a civil society delegation from 13 nations on the upcoming convention of the events, coming 3 to 7 November in Geneva. The voice of mercury-free dentistry will probably be well-represented.
Your Assist Makes a Huge Distinction
Customers for Dental Alternative is a tremendous nonprofit 501(c)(3) group devoted to advocating mercury-free dentistry. Its gifted crew of client advocates, environmentalists, and well being professionals work tirelessly — and successfully — to proceed the struggle towards dental mercury all over the world.
Contemplate donating to this worthwhile trigger to assist get rid of mercury fillings, and I’ll match your reward. Click on the button beneath to donate on-line:
Or chances are you’ll mail a test to:
Customers for Dental Alternative
727 fifteenth St. NW, Suite 701
Washington, DC 20005
Along with your assist, Customers for Dental Alternative’s marketing campaign will guarantee mercury-free dentistry for all.
Sources to Assist You Select a Mercury-Free Dentist
Insist on mercury-free dental fillings. These nice organizations might help you discover a mercury-free dentist:
- Customers for Dental Alternative
- Dental Amalgam Mercury Options (DAMS)
- Holistic Dental Affiliation
- Worldwide Academy of Organic Dentistry and Medication (IABDM)
- Worldwide Affiliation of Mercury Secure Dentists
- Worldwide Academy of Oral Medication and Toxicology (IAOMT)
- Discuss Worldwide
Steadily Requested Questions (FAQs) About Dental Amalgams
Q: What’s dental amalgam, and why is it controversial?
A: Dental amalgam, typically misleadingly referred to as “silver fillings,” is definitely 50% mercury — a poisonous heavy metallic that may vaporize and journey to the mind, kidneys, placenta, and breast milk. Regardless of safer options, the American Dental Affiliation (ADA) traditionally promoted amalgam whereas discouraging dentists from discussing its well being dangers.
Q: What progress has been made towards eliminating dental amalgam worldwide?
A: Customers for Dental Alternative, led by Charlie Brown, has secured main victories, together with Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) and World Well being Group (WHO) opposition to amalgam, full bans throughout the European Union (EU), and restrictions in quite a few international locations throughout Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. In the US, main producers like Dentsply and Envista have stopped producing amalgam completely.
Q: Who remains to be most affected by mercury-based dentistry?
A: Weak populations — together with troopers, Native Individuals, institutionalized people, and low-income households with restrictive insurance coverage — typically nonetheless obtain amalgam fillings on account of authorities insurance policies, restricted entry to options, and deceptive info from pro-mercury dentists.
Q: What’s being carried out to finish amalgam use in authorities applications?
A: Customers for Dental Alternative has efficiently pushed the Indian Well being Service (IHS) to undertake a phase-down plan and continues to induce Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the US Secretary of Well being and Human Companies (HHS), to ban amalgam purchases in all federal dental applications. They’re additionally main initiatives in states like Florida, Rhode Island, and California to get rid of amalgam from Medicaid and different public providers.
Q: What’s subsequent within the struggle towards dental mercury?
A: The worldwide marketing campaign now goals to make a full phase-out of amalgam a authorized requirement underneath the Minamata Conference on Mercury. This will probably be debated on the November 2025 convention in Geneva, the place Customers for Dental Alternative will lead a global delegation to advocate for a worldwide ban.
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