Artículos de revistas
Optimizing the procedure for mercury recovery from dental amalgam
Fecha
2008Registro en:
Brazilian Oral Research, v.22, n.2, p.119-124, 2008
1806-8324
10.1590/S1806-83242008000200005
Autor
IANO, Flávia Godoy
SANTOS SOBRINHO, Ovídio dos
SILVA, Thelma Lopes da
PEREIRA, Marlus Alves
FIGUEIREDO, Paulo Jorge Moraes
ALBERGUINI, Leny Borghesan Albertini
GRANJEIRO, José Mauro
Institución
Resumen
Mercury, as any other heavy metal, may cause environmental damages due to its accumulation and biotransformation. Dental offices, whether private or institutional, use dental amalgam as a restorative material on a daily basis. Dental amalgam is composed of mercury (50%), silver (30%) and other metals. Approximately 30% of the amalgam prepared in dental offices (0.6 g per capsule) are wasted and inadequately discarded without any treatment. Methods for mercury recovery have been proposed previously, using high temperatures through exposure to direct flame (650°C), long processing time, and hazardous reagents as potassium cyanide. The purpose of this study was to develop a method to replace the direct flame by an electrical mantle in the process of mercury recovery. Results showed an average mercury recovery of 90% from 2 kg of amalgam after 30 minutes of processing time, thus optimizing the procedure. The proposed modifications allowed a significant reduction in processing time and a mercury recovery with high purity. The modified process also provided minimization of operator exposure to physical, chemical and ergonomic hazards, representing a technological advance compared to the risks inherent to the original method. It also provided environmental health and economy of energy resources by replacing a finite energy source (fossil and organic) by a more environmentally appropriate electric source, resulting in significant improvement of the procedure for mercury recovery from dental amalgam.