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The Australian public's perception of mercury risk from dental restorations
Author(s) -
Thomson W. Murray,
Stewart Judith F.,
Carter Knute D.,
Spencer A. John
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1997.tb01728.x
Subject(s) - medicine , dentistry , mercury (programming language) , perception , epistemology , programming language , philosophy , computer science
The debate about mercury and denial amalgam has been one of the longest running in dentistry, and shows no signs of abating. This study aimed to investigate perceptions about mercury in denial fillings among a representative sample of the Australian public. A random sub‐sample of participants in a national denial telephone interview survey completed a follow‐up postal questionnaire which included four items on denial mercury. The postal survey response rate was 85.2%. Concern about mercury in dental fillings was expressed by 37.5%, while 16.2% reported having requested fillings that do not contain mercury. Avoidance of dental care because of concern about mercury in fillings was reported by 5.8%, but only 4.7% reported having had fillings replaced because they contained mercury. The data indicate that there is a substantial degree of concern about mercury and dental amalgam among the Australian public, but that the dental behavioural and treatment‐pattern consequences of that concern are infrequent.