[ACEsthetics] Abx resistance with amalgams

Prevalence and antibiotic resistance profile of mercury-resistant oral bacteria from children with and without mercury amalgam fillings

1. R. Pike1, 
2. V. Lucas2, 
3. P. Stapleton3, 
4. M. S. Gilthorpe4, 
5. G. Roberts5, 
6. R. Rowbury3,
7. H. Ric
8. hards3, 
9. P. Mullany1 and 
10. M. Wilson1,*

1. Departments of ¹Microbiology, ²Oral Medicine and ⁵Paediatric Dentistry, and ⁴Biostatistics Unit, Eastman Dental Institute, University College London, 256 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LD; ³Department of Biology (Darwin Building), University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK

http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/5/777.long

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Abstract

Genes encoding resistance to mercury and to antibiotics are often carried on the same mobile genetic element and so it is possible that mercury-containing dental materials may select for bacteria resistant to mercury and to antibiotics. The main aim of this study was to determine whether the prevalence of Hg-resistant oral bacteria was greater in children with mercury amalgam fillings than in those without. A secondary aim was to determine whether the Hg-resistant isolates were also antibiotic resistant. Bacteria in dental plaque and saliva from 41 children with amalgam fillings and 42 children without such fillings were screened for mercury resistance by cultivation on a HgCl₂-containing medium. Surviving organisms were identified and their susceptibility to mercury and to several antibiotics was determined. Seventy-eight per cent and 74% of children in the amalgam group and amalgam-free group, respectively, harboured Hg-resistant bacteria; this difference was not statistically significant. Nor was there any significant difference between the groups in terms of the proportions of Hg-resistant bacteria in the oral microflora of the children. Of Hg-resistant bacteria, 88% and 92% from the amalgam group and the amalgam-free group, respectively, were streptococci; 41% and 33% were resistant to at least one antibiotic, most frequently tetracycline. The results of this study show that there was no significant difference between children with amalgam fillings and those without such fillings with regard to the prevalence, or the proportion, of Hg-resistant bacteria in their oral microflora. The study also found that Hg-resistant bacteria were common in children regardless of whether or not they had amalgam fillings and that many of these organisms were also resistant to antibiotics.

 

Full pdf attached.

 

This is in contradistinction to Anne Summers's work.  She showed significant resistance changes in GUT bacteria when amalgams were in the mouth.

 

 

Summers, A.O.; Wireman, J.; Microbiology Department University of Georgia: Vimy, M.J.;

Lorscheider, F.L. Department of Medicine and Physiology, University of Calgary, Alberta,

Canada Increased mercury resistance in monkey gingival and intestinal bacterial flora after

placement of dental "silver" fillings abstract The Physiologist 8/15/90 Email: Ann Summers

summers@arches.uga.edu

 

She found that installing amalgam fillings in wild caught monkeys caused antibiotic

resistant organisms to develop in the intestinal flora within two weeks.

 

 

regards

bill domb