Abstract
IntroductionThe potential effects of amalgam fillings on the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are not well understood. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between dental amalgam fillings and Alzheimer’s disease in Taiwanese population aged 65 and older.MethodsData were retrieved from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID 2005 and 2010). The study enrolled 1,943,702 beneficiaries from the LHID database. After excluding death cases and individuals aged 65 and under, 207,587 enrollees were finally involved in the study. Dental amalgam fillings are coded as 89001C, 89002C, 89003C, 89101C, 89102C, or 89103C in the national health insurance research database (NHIRD). Alzheimer’s disease was diagnosed using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes 331.0.ResultsIndividuals exposed to amalgam fillings had higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease (odds ratio, OR = 1.105, 95 % confidence interval, CI = 1.025-1.190) than their non-exposed counterparts. Further analysis showed that the odds ratio of Ahlzheimer's disease was 1.07 (95 % CI = 0.962-1.196) in men and 1.132 (95 % CI = 1.022-1.254) in women.ConclusionsWomen who were exposed to amalgam fillings were 1.132 times more likely to have Alzheimer’s disease than were their non-exposed counterparts.
Highlights
The potential effects of amalgam fillings on the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are not well understood
This study aimed to investigate the association between dental amalgam fillings and AD in the Taiwanese population 65-years and older
Dental amalgam fillings were coded as 89001C, 89002C, 89003C, 89101C, 89102C, and 89103C in the national health insurance research database (NHIRD), where 89001C indicates single-face amalgam restoration, 89002C indicates twoface amalgam restoration, and 89003C indicates threeface amalgam restoration
Summary
The potential effects of amalgam fillings on the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are not well understood. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between dental amalgam fillings and Alzheimer’s disease in Taiwanese population aged 65 and older. A material for filling prepared cavities after removing caries, consists of about 50 % mercury [1]. Mercury vapor has been proven to be toxic to the central nervous system. In 2008, the European Commission asserted that there is no evidence showing negative effects on the human central nervous system when applying amalgam fillings as reported in previous studies. Some scientific experiments showed that amalgam restorations in the oral cavity keep releasing human-absorbable mercury vapor [5,6,7,8].
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