On Jul 31, 6:34 am, Larry Jaques
wrote:
I did, too, and it surprised the hell out of me when I heard that
familiar crunch and squeal of the burnisher, packing in the amalgam. I
didn't think they used merc fillings any more.

Yup. I got one a month ago. Still popular because it's cheap
and lasts a long time and is a lot safer than it was.
My former dentist had been a mechanical engineer before he
became a dentist. (Just think of all those years in university...) He
told me (and showed me, because I was doing some mechanical design
work at the time and we talked as much as I could with my mouth full
of his fingers and tools and rubber dams and air drills and vacuums;
my very own little machine shop) that the mercury and silver were now
prepackaged in a small plastic vial that has two compartments. The
amounts of each element in the vial are very precisely measured; it
was the surplus of mercury or poor mixing that used to cause problems
when dentists had to measure out the bits and mash them together.
Anyway, this vial is put into a shaker that vibrates it so hard that
the barrier between the compartments breaks and the mix occurrs, very
violently and completely. Any leaching of mercury out of your teeth
will likely take a lot longer to kill you than the other things we
face.

Dan