BDA insists on coherent strategy for amalgam phase down

That’s the verdict of the BDA in its response to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) consultation on the UK’s implementation of the EU Regulation on Mercury, which comes into force next January.

The BDA believes this is necessary to support the requirement for countries to have a national plan in place by July 2019 on the measures they will employ to phase down the use of amalgam in restorations. The BDA believes that the scale of the phase down is such that it also needs to be supported by investment in research into and development of alternative materials to amalgam.

By July 2018, the EU Regulation stipulates that placing amalgam restorations in under-15s and pregnant/breastfeeding women should be restricted to instances when it is “deemed strictly necessary by the dental practitioner based on the specific medical needs of the patient”.

The BDA has strongly argued against plans proposed for Wales to define a restricted list of clinical scenarios in which the placement of an amalgam filling would be acceptable. The best interests of each individual patient are paramount and such a list could not possibly cover all situations in which a clinician might find it necessary to recommend the use of dental amalgam.