Number of amalgam tooth fillings in relation to subjectively experienced symptoms in a study of Swedish women

Abstract

There has been a lot of discussion concerning the possible influence of amalgam tooth fillings on different symptoms and complaints. Information on this topic could be obtained from 1024 dentulous women aged 38-72, participants in a population study of women in Gothenburg, Sweden, who answered a questionnaire with 30 specific questions concerning different symptoms and complaints. The answers were related to number of tooth surfaces restored with amalgam. Due to the sampling method and the high participation rate, the participants were representative of dentulous women of the same age in the general population. No positive correlations were found between number of amalgam fillings and number of symptoms, nor between number of amalgam fillings and prevalence of specified single symptoms or complaints. On the contrary there were a number of age-matched significant correlations in the opposite direction, which means that women with a high number of amalgam fillings reported a lower number of symptoms and complaints than women with a low number of amalgam fillings. These inverse relationships between number of amalgam fillings and different symptoms and complaints usually disappeared, when number of teeth was taken into consideration as a background variable. The inverse relationships with abdominal pain and poor appetite were, however, independent of both number of teeth and socioeconomic status as based on multivariate analysis. This study does not support the view of a correlation between amalgam fillings and symptoms and complaints, at least not on a population level.