[Prospective study on the mercury uptake of dental students. Part 1: Increase in mercury excretion during simulated...

It was the goal of this study performed in two subsequent technical courses of operative dentistry to find out if the first "professional" contact of dental students with amalgam resulted in a increased mercury excretion. At six different points in time urine analyses using (flame-free) cold vapor nuclear absorption spectroscopy were performed. At the first measurement, prior to working with amalgam, the median values were at 0.53 micrograms Hg/g creatinine (summer term 88) and 1.46 micrograms Hg/g creatinine (winter term 88/89). At the end of the course the median values have increased to 2.49 micrograms Hg/g creatinine (summer term 88) and 2.56 micrograms Hg/g creatinine (winter term 88/89). In the subsequent vacations the Hg values in the students' urine clearly decreased.