Is America on the Verge of Banning Dental Amalgam Mercury Entirely?
The agency within HHS that would be needed to ban dental mercury is the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Sadly, the FDA has been a seriously “captured agency” when it comes to standing up to special interests of industry and doing what is right for the health of the American people.
In August of 2009, the FDA classified the amalgam filling as a Class II material (moderate risk) rather than as a Class III material (highest risk and requiring a proof of safety). This was a sweetheart deal for the pro-mercury American Dental Association, and it disregarded the vast evidence of harm that mercury is known to cause. Top mercury scientists and natural health activists pushed back mightily, but FDA staunchly defended its inappropriate regulation of amalgams in the decade that followed.
But, true enough, in September 2020, FDA put out a dramatic press release warning that amalgam should not be used in “vulnerable populations,” including pregnant women, nursing mothers, children, people with neurological disorders and people with impaired kidney function. FDA’s dramatic warning was welcome, but it was somewhat of an empty gesture, and it had a very limited impact on mercury amalgam use in America simply because the FDA did not go back and revise its wrong-headed amalgam rule of 2009.
Petitions Filed with FDA to Change the 2009 Amalgam Rule
But the times they are a-changing, at least within the HHS. In July of 2025, mercury writer-researcher-activist Anita Tibau filed a petition with the FDA calling for a reconsideration of its 2009 amalgam rule. Weeks later, attorney James Love, JD, also filed a petition to FDA for reconsideration of the rule on behalf of the two non-profits, International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) and Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions (DAMS). Both petitions presented massive evidence that dental mercury should be banned in America, but all of the petitioners have been waiting for a clearly positive FDA response. Now, with the positive actions coming from within the HHS on the dental mercury issue, hope is building; we may have a sign that the petitions for an end of mercury amalgams may finally be met at the FDA with a welcoming posture instead of being met by hostility or indifference.
* Amalgam mercury removal cautions – Removal of dental amalgam fillings and replacement of them with biocompatible white fillings can help a patient find relief from mercury’s health impacts, but most dentists do not have the equipment and training to replace the amalgam fillings with the protections needed to make the amalgam removal safe enough for the patient. Dental patients need elaborate measures to protect them from exposure to the mercury vapor and fine amalgam particles that are generated during an amalgam filling removal. Readers may go to IAOMT.org or amalgam.org for more about safe amalgam removal and possible dentist choices for doing amalgam removal safely.
