dental amalgam
1
4.2
- noun
- /ˈdɛntəl əˈmælɡəm/
- Specialized
:
amalgama dental
- The main ways that humans are exposed to mercury are from contaminated fish and dental amalgams or silver fillings.
Examples
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Some other countries, such as Sweden and Denmark, have banned the use of mercury in dental amalgams, citing health or environmental concerns.
Blog text (7) -
Many of his patients reported a symptom complex consistent with chronic fatigue syndrome that they believed was related to dental amalgams.
Blog text (7) -
When taken collectively, the research forces us to question the safety of dental amalgams.
Blog text (7) -
Worse, mercury from dental amalgams in pregnant women may also contribute to the development of autism in their children.
Blog text (7) -
Dental amalgam is a mercury-based filling that contains elemental mercury at about 50% by weight.
Academic text (2002) -
Moreover, individuals with dental amalgams are exposed to continuous long-term amounts of mercury (in vapour form and in organic form from biotransformation by oral bacteria).
Academic text (2002) -
At the conference, Anders Lindvall, M.D., from the Foundation for Metal Biology in Sweden, reported his work on the health effects of dental amalgams and presented a review of the controversial literature on dental amalgams and human health.
Blog text (7) -
Tooth cavities are most often filled with dental amalgam.
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Used for over 150 years, dental amalgam has proved to be an effective and relatively inexpensive way to repair damaged teeth.
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The American Dental Association defines dental amalgam as a safe and effective material for dental restorations.
Synonyms
14
3.4
A material a dentist puts into a tooth after removing decay
6
7.0
A mixture of mercury and another metal used to fill teeth
How Durable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is a straightforward adjective + noun: 'dental' (relating to teeth/dentistry) modifies 'amalgam' (an alloy used in dentistry), so the meaning 'an amalgam used in dental work' is directly derivable from the parts. Although somewhat technical, this compositional pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would understand the MWE.
Etymology
Dental amalgam comes from the word amalgam, which means a 'mixture'. Dentists mixed mercury with metals like silver to make a soft paste they could press into a tooth cavity, and when it set it became a strong 'filling'. So dental amalgam means the metal 'filling' dentists use to repair a tooth.