Re: Top Dentist Blames Electricity From Amalgams


Joel344 wrote:


That is only amalgams of course. If other things had
electricity, on what would we blame the inability to line dance?


I have read dentists explaining how they are taught in dental schools
that as a result of "galvanic" action a new amalgam filling quickly
gains a layer of metal oxide which adheres to its exposed surface and
in doing so effectively prevents any further galvanic action (or
"corrosion") from taking place.

Well that's fine as far as it goes.

However, it appears that dental students are then simply left to
presume that this explanation accounts for all of the electrical
behavior of amalgam fillings.

And that's ridiculous.

For a start, although the layer of metal oxide may prevent any further
galvanic action from taking place, this does not mean that it provides
an effective layer of electrical insulation on the surface of the
filling. Indeed, materials scientists are well aware that metal oxides
make relatively poor electrical insulators.

More significantly however, it has been known for more than 150 years
that metals, mixtures of metals and dissimilar metals in contact with
each other are able to generate electrical potentials as a result of
their thermoelectric and electromagnetic behaviors, and that they are
able to do this without becoming involved in any electrolytic
(i.e."galvanic") activity at all.

But it appears that even after all this time all dentists remain
completely ignorant of the extent to which these electrical behaviors
occur in a typical dental amalgam throughout all of their careers.

Do you think that the continued belief that amalgams formed by mixing
liquid mercury with grains of solid metal alloy at room temperature are
suitable materials for use in restorative dentistry might actually be
dependent upon the perpetuation of this ignorance?

Or is there some other explanation for it?

Keith P Walsh

PS, further questions regarding the electrical properties of dental
amalgams can be found at:

http://book.boot.users.btopenworld.com/intro.htm

.

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