“How often do you get the chance
to improve the lives of a billion people?”
– Dr. Hal Huggins, pioneer mercury-free dentist, 1996.
(At the launching of the Consumers for Dental Choice project.)
History:
Consumers for Dental Choice (CDC) was established in 1996 by consumer advocates, mercury poisoning victims, scientists and mercury-free dentists as a 501(3)(c) non profit organization. The purpose of the organization is to promote access to mercury-free dentistry; to legislate informed consent before placement of mercury amalgams; and, to ultimately abolish the use of mercury in dental restorations.
Initially, CDC’s work was all defensive, fighting to support mercury-free dentists who were being harassed by state licensing boards with threats of losing their professional licenses. CDC’s work has now grown to include legal challenges to state regulations which prohibit mercury-free dentists from advising dental consumers about the risks of mercury amalgams, as well as support of national and state legislation to require informed consent before placement of mercury amalgams, to limit the use of mercury amalgams in vulnerable populations, and to ban the use of mercury amalgams for all by 2007.
In addition, targeted litigation has been filed in a number of states to challenge the deceptive practices of the American Dental Association (ADA) which continues to perpetuate the fraud that mercury amalgams are “silver fillings” when the primary component is mercury (50%), and to make claims of safety for mercury amalgams when there are no peer-reviewed scientific studies which support that claim.
