Are mercury amalgam fillings safe for children? An evaluation of recent research results.

Two recent clinical trials on the safety of amalgam fillings in children found no evidence of harmful effects from mercury-containing dental fillings after following children for 5-7 years. This review suggests the studies' results are limited by (1) sample sizes that were too small to allow detection of genetic variations in mercury toxicity at a rate of 1 in 100 or lower, (2) a lack of control for other sources of mercury, and (3) a population that may have been skewed by excluding children with autism during a time when autism was escalating due, in part, to increased frequency of thimerosal-containing vaccine use.