After amalgam: The battle of the bulk fills!

What to expect

Amalgam’s days have been numbered since the Minamata Agreement, signed by 143 countries in 2013. It was widely thought that the date for a final phasing out of amalgam would be 2030, but the EU hastened the end date by banning the manufacture and export of dental amalgam from 1 January 2025.  While the UK is no longer in the EU, it may be considered that the EU ban will nevertheless affect UK dentists, with those in Northern Ireland being particularly impacted. 

This presentation will briefly trace the demise of dental amalgam, before discussing potential “viable alternatives”. In that regard, given that dental amalgam is essentially a bulk fill material and does not require an intermediate bonding agent, bulk fill materials may therefore be the closest amalgam alternative, facilitating easy and quick placement.

This webinar will compare the bulk fill materials which are presently available with amalgam, and suggest the “evidence” which should be employed by clinicians when deciding whether, or not, to adopt a particular new material.

Learning objectives

• Understand why dental amalgam’s days are numbered
• Discuss the most recent developments in bulk fill resin composite and glass ionomer/glass hybrid materials for use in loadbearing situations in posterior teeth
• Provide a comparison with dental amalgam, which has been our “gold standard” for 125 years
• Suggest the criteria by which clinicians should appraise a new material.

Development outcome

C

Meet the speaker

Trevor Burke graduated at Queens University Belfast. Following appointments in Belfast and Manchester, he worked in general dental practice from 1975 to 1996 in Manchester and part time at the University of Manchester. His first Chair was in Glasgow in 1996, becoming Professor of Primary Dental Care at the University of Birmingham / Hon. Consultant in Restorative Dentistry in 2000, before retiring from there in October 2020. He still sees patients in private practice.

Trevor is (co-) author of 380 papers published in peer-reviewed journals and three books. His principal research interest is work on restoration survival, using a database of 13 million restorations at 16 years