Release of mercury from amalgam filling and its relationship with metallothionein and superoxide dismutase

This study aims at determining the amount of mercury released over time from amalgam after treatment in healthy subjects and to examine the relation of mercury with serum MT-1 and SOD-1 levels. Amalgam filling was applied to the 15 subjects aged 19-22 years and blood samples were collected before treatment and 1 day, 7 days, 21 days and 35 days after treatment. Mercury analysis of serum samples was performed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). In addition, MT-1 and SOD-1 levels in serum samples were measured using commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Friedman test and Spearman's correlation analysis was performed to analyse the data. p value was interpreted in significance level of 0.05. As a result of the analysis for MT-1, it was found that the values decreased over time and this decrease was statistically significant after 21 days (p