Mercury exposure from dental filling placement during pregnancy and low birth weight risk.

Author: Hujoel PP, Lydon-Rochelle M, Bollen AM, Woods JS, Geurtsen W, del Aguila MA.

Source: Am J Epidemiol.

Year: 2005

Comment:

This study found no evidence of low birth weight risk from placement of dental amalgam mercury in pregnant women. However, the researchers note that 1) the number of fillings in the subject prior to pregnancy were not taken into account and 2) if a filling was removed prior to the placement of the dental amalgam, the filling type was of the previous restoration was not reported.

Abstract / Excerpt:

“Several European countries have guidelines suggesting that women should not receive mercury-containing dental amalgam fillings during pregnancy. One concern raised by several studies is that mercury exposure during pregnancy may lead to decreased birth weight. A population-based, case-control study was designed to investigate whether placement of mercury-containing fillings in 1993-2000 during pregnancy increased the low-birth-weight risk. Cases and controls were sampled from enrollees of a dental insurance plan with live singleton births in Washington State; 1,117 women with low-birth-weight infants (< 2,500 g) were compared with a random sample of 4,468 women with infants weighing 2,500 g or more. The results indicated that 13% of a dentally insured population had one or more restorative procedures during pregnancy that, regardless of chemical composition, did not increase the low-birth-weight risk (odds ratio = 0.96, 95% confidence interval: 0.88, 1.05). The 4.9% of the women (n = 249) who had at least one mercury-containing amalgam filling during pregnancy were not at an increased risk for a low-birth-weight infant (odds ratio = 0.75, 95% confidence interval: 0.45, 1.26) and neither were women who had 4-11 amalgam fillings placed (odds ratio = 1.00, 95% confidence interval: 0.27, 3.68). This study found no evidence that mercury-containing dental fillings placed during pregnancy increased low-birth-weight risk.”

Citation:

Hujoel PP, Lydon-Rochelle M, Bollen AM, Woods JS, Geurtsen W, del Aguila MA.  Mercury exposure from dental filling placement during pregnancy and low birth weight risk. Am J Epidemiol. 2005; 161(8):734-40.