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Trial Lawyers Sink Their Teeth Into Ours
By Kerri Houston
July 8, 2002

It's amazing that any of us are still alive! Despite overwhelming empirical evidence to the contrary from the U.S. and international scientific community, a few trial lawyers and junk scientists want us to think that our teeth are trying to kill us.

Well, not our teeth exactly, but the fillings therein. In February of this year, a class action lawsuit was brought against the American Dental Association and Maryland State Dental Association claiming that these organizations have put the unwitting citizens of Maryland at risk by filling their teeth with dental amalgam. Such a case is already proceeding in California.

Dental amalgam is the most common material used in filling cavities, and has been extensively reviewed and studied for over a century. Amalgam has a safety record above reproach.

Dental amalgam starts out as an alloy of silver, copper, tin and 35 - 42% of mercury. The ensuing chemical reaction results in a distinct compound that has been used effectively for more than 150 years. It is the mercury component that lights up the dollar signs in trial lawyers' eyes.

As with other natural elements, mercury can have toxic affects at extremely high exposures. For that matter, even table salt (sodium) and bananas (potassium) can cause adverse reactions if ingested in unnaturally high amounts. But in the real world, there is no danger whatsoever from silver fillings according to an array of well-respected organizations including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Dental Association, the World Health Organization, Consumer Reports, the National Institutes of Health, Prevention and patient advocacy groups including the Alzheimers and Related Diseases Association and the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

After years of extensive study, the FDA recently issued a statement that "no valid scientific evidence has ever shown that amalgams cause harm to patients with dental restorations, except the rare case of allergy." How rare? Fewer than one hundred reported cases over the last century.

People can be exposed to 5 - 6 micrograms of mercury per day just by eating and breathing. Fillings emit a mere 1 - 3 micrograms per day. The combination of the two doses still does not come close to the World Health Organization's acceptable daily intake (set thousands of times above "effect" levels for maximum safety) of 30 micrograms per day. One expert stated that even a mercury-sensitive individual would need to have over 450 fillings before showing the slightest of symptoms.

Most people I know don't even have that many teeth, let alone fillings.

Of course truth and indisputable scientific evidence is no match for rhetoric and outright misrepresentation from the plaintiff's bar. But the lawsuits themselves do more harm to us than fillings ever could.

They hurt our dentists. More than 99% of all American businesses are considered small businesses with these entrepreneurs generating more than half of private sector productivity and creating 75% of net new private industry jobs each year. Small business ownership has been growing most rapidly for women and minorities. Small businesses produce twice as many new products and innovations as large companies. These are our nation's dentists. They are not huge corporations with "deep pockets" - but hardworking entrepreneurs.

Lawsuits harm consumers. As a result of these lawsuits, insurance premiums for practitioners will go up and that cost will be passed along to patients in the dentists' bills. The availability of dental insurance is the single most significant factor for increasing the use of dental services - and improved oral healthcare - and the cost of dental insurance plans will also rise for employers and individuals. And roughly 65% of dental costs come directly out of families' pockets. Ouch.

Lawsuits cost taxpayers. Courtrooms are not free, and every greedy and frivolous lawsuit is subsidized by local taxpayers, in addition to clogging up the judicial system for citizens and businesses with legitimate legal issues.

The FDA plans to continue monitoring the safety of today's pre-encapsulated dental amalgam even as its use is naturally declining due to dental industry innovations. Tooth decay is on the run thanks in part to sealants, fluoridated water, improved toothpastes and brushes, and a more educated dental consumer.

One hundred million Americans have amalgam fillings with 100 million new fillings completed every year. As U.S. life expectancy in 1900 was only 49 years and has increased from 69 years in 1950 to over 77 today, it seems that we are making great strides toward greater health and longevity despite our numerous fillings.

Costly lawsuits based on junk science are a dishonest way for the few to earn a living at the expense of the many. With suits against Microsoft as well as paint and pharmaceutical companies, trial lawyers have inserted themselves into our computers, our walls, and our medicine cabinets.

Now they are in our teeth. Perhaps the bucks should stop there.

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Kerri Houston is National Field Director for the American Conservative Union.