End This System of Choice for the Rich and Mercury for the Poor — Support Mercury-Free Dentistry!

• The truth behind silver fillings — Well, I’m here to tell you that “silver” filling is actually a mercury filling. Mercury is not only toxic, but the most vaporous of heavy metals. So, that means mercury can reach the brain, the kidneys, the placenta, and the breast milk.

• The status quo is enforced — The ADA’s callous and irresponsible promotion of mercury-based dentistry — when the alternatives are technically better now and much more tooth friendly — continues to have severe health, workplace, and environmental consequences.

• Vote with your wallet — Modern dentists never use dental amalgam. If your dentist still places amalgam in any dental patient, it’s time to take your business elsewhere.

• Major victories have been won — With tenacity, Charlie built a worldwide nonprofit powerhouse — and with strategic brilliance, found the path to dismantle the pro-amalgam machine. Amalgam is now banned across Europe, and in several African and Asian nations.

Both the FDA and the WHO switched from amalgam advocates to amalgam opponents. Readers, convincing either the FDA or WHO to switch from support to opposition of a product is extremely rare; changing both of these impenetrable colossi is, well, unprecedented in my experience.

• Countless lives were saved from mercury — Millions and millions of American consumers — and billions worldwide — were spared from the health risk of mercury-based fillings. Three decades ago, the late mercury-free dental pioneer Dr. Hal Huggins asked Charlie to help a billion people — it now appears he has done so.

• There are still battles to be fought — But as I explain below, we do not have mercury-free dentistry for all. We need to keep the momentum going to banish use of this primitive, pre-Civil War pollutant from our planet.

• The choice still isn’t given to all — Many consumers are powerless to choose. Soldiers and sailors, institutionalized individuals, people stuck in government programs like the Indian Health Service (IHS), and people saddled with cut-rate insurance plans that favor mercury.

• Victims of fraudulent campaigning — The mentioned consumers and their children are commonly victims of pro-mercury dentists who falsely tell patients amalgam is “silver.” These are victims of callous government chief dental officers who couldn’t care less that the FDA warns against amalgam use in children and other high-risk populations, victims of dental insurance companies that squeeze every dollar from consumers without regard to safety.

• Authorities finally gathered and listened — After years of pounding on doors, Consumers for Dental Choice finally got the government to the table for an entire day last year in Washington, DC to talk about ending amalgam.

Assembled were government officials representing the FDA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the State Department, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the IHS who met with a broad range of environmental, medical, dental, science, and consumer leaders.

• New programs have been created — Now, we see results. Consumers for Dental Choice convinced the IHS to publish its “Plan to Phase Down the Use of Dental Amalgam among American Indians/Alaska Natives 2010 – 2030 (or until dental amalgam is phased out in the U.S.).”

It includes such effective measures as “Provide guidance to IHS, tribal, and urban dental programs to cease the use of dental amalgam on deciduous (primary) teeth,” “Conduct a national webinar for IHS dental providers regarding the 2020 FDA Safety Communication and this phase-down plan,” and “Develop policies that reduce the amount of dental amalgam purchased by IHS service units.”

• The final push is on the horizon — Now, Consumers for Dental Choice calls on Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to go further. Indeed, Charlie wrote a guest column in the Tampa Bay Times urging Secretary Kennedy to end amalgam use in federal programs with the “stroke of a pen” — that is, ban purchases of mercury-based dental fillings by federal health agencies.

Then, 150 dental professionals signed onto a letter calling on Secretary Kennedy to end dental amalgam in government programs.

• Florida — Assembling four national organizations, Consumers for Dental Choice filed a petition to Tallahassee to end amalgam use in Florida Medicaid. They had a Zoom meeting with my friend, renowned Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. More than a dozen Florida dentists signed a letter asking for action.

• Rhode Island — Consumers for Dental Choice is building a grassroots movement in the Ocean State, finding real interest among environmental groups, racial justice advocates, and dental professionals.

• California — Consumers for Dental Choice is working with the Alameda County (Oakland) Consumer Affairs Commission to empower consumer choice.

• Cutting off amalgam supply — Consumers for Dental Choice already pushed major U.S. dental products makers Dentsply and Envista (Kerr) out of the amalgam business. Today, the major American companies make only mercury-free fillings.

• Cutting off amalgam demand — As Consumers for Dental Choice wins bans and restrictions on amalgam, the demand for this mercury product continues to drop. Countries banning amalgam sweep across Asia, notably the Philippines and Indonesia. In Africa, Tanzania and Gabon have also banned amalgam, as well as in the Caribbean (St. Kitts and Nevis).

• Cutting off the amalgam trade — The recent European Union (EU) law not only bans amalgam use, but also bans amalgam imports and exports, cutting off dental mercury peddlers — both in the EU and abroad — from many markets.

• Europe was the largest user of amalgam in the world — Governmental officials read from talking points supplied by the pro-mercury Council of European Dentists (CED). Charlie assembled a team from the 27 member nations. His team returned repeatedly to the federal capital, Brussels, went to the national capitals, and organized a response to a European Commission poll demonstrating that 88% of Europeans want mercury-free dentistry.

• Hard work and perseverance pay off — To run the campaign in Europe, Charlie appointed Florian Schulze, leader of an exciting new non-governmental organization (NGO) in Berlin, the European Network for Environmental Medicine. Florian and his NGO engineered the breakthrough our cause needed — a law in 2017 banning amalgam for children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers.

The goal, then, upshifted to mercury-free dentistry for all — a path requiring a Biblical seven more years of grueling challenges. The result in 2024 — a vote to ban amalgam was 27 nations for, zero nations against. What started with two countries in support in 2011 morphed into unanimity in 2024. The European Parliament supported the ban 98% to 2% — imagine such a near-unanimity from a legislative body!

• Governments around the world are following — In addition to the growing number of countries banning all amalgam, many countries — from Vietnam to Mauritius to Tunisia — have banned amalgam use for high-risk populations like children.

Now, another major country, China, has joined them. China issued a new regulation in 2024 that in translation says, “Dental amalgam is prohibited for use in dental treatment of deciduous teeth, patients under 15 years of age, and pregnant and lactating women, unless the dentist deems it necessary based on the needs of the patient.”

• Preparing for the faceoff — In 2022, the Parties adopted the Children’s Amendment addressing an end date for amalgam for children and for pregnant and breastfeeding women. In 2023 the Parties adopted a phase out of dental amalgam as a worldwide goal.

In November 2025, the Minamata Convention on Mercury reconvenes — at the top of the agenda is whether to shift treaty language from phase out amalgam as a goal to phase out of amalgam as a legal mandate. Both the Africa continent, by unanimity, and the European Union have already called for support of this amendment — and support is growing across the globe.

• The fight to ban amalgam comes to a head — Charlie will lead a civil society delegation from 13 nations at the upcoming conference of the parties, coming 3 to 7 November in Geneva. The voice of mercury-free dentistry will be well-represented.