RESEARCH ARTICLE
Health Complaints Attributed to Dental Amalgam: A Retrospective Survey Exploring Perceived Health Changes Related to Amalgam Removal
Agnete Egilsdatter Kristoffersen1, *, Terje Alræk1, Trine Stub1, Harald Johan Hamre2, Lars Björkman3, Frauke Musial1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2016Volume: 10
First Page: 739
Last Page: 751
Publisher ID: TODENTJ-10-739
DOI: 10.2174/1874210601610010739
Article History:
Received Date: 28/06/2016Revision Received Date: 06/12/2016
Acceptance Date: 12/12/2016
Electronic publication date: 30/12/2016
Collection year: 2016
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background:
Many patients have complex health complaints they attribute to dental amalgam. There is some evidence of symptom relief after removal of amalgam.
Objective:
The aims of this study were to assess the total symptom load in patients with all their amalgam fillings removed, and to investigate the self-reported improvement of health with regard to precautions taken under amalgam removal and time since removal.
Methods:
The survey was distributed to all members (n=999) of the Norwegian Dental patients association in 2011. The study participants returned the questionnaires anonymously by means of a pre-stamped envelope. The questionnaire asked for sociodemographic data, subjectively perceived health status, complaints persisting after amalgam removal and self-reported changes in symptoms after amalgam removal.
Results:
A total of 324 participants were included in the study. The majority of the participants reported improved health after amalgam removal, even though the mean degree of severity of complaints was still high. Exhaustion and musculoskeletal complaints were most severe, and reflects the fact that 38% of the participants reported poor to very poor current health. With regard to amalgam removal, associations between improved health, number of precautions applied, and time since removal were found.
Conclusion:
Most of the participants in this study reported improvement of health after amalgam removal even though they still suffered a high complaint load. Since absolute symptom load is a robust predictor for general health outcome and socioeconomic burden for society, a possible intervention, which enables patients to further improve their health status is desirable.
