Ireland, The Czech Republic, Finland, and Slovakia have introduced provisions for a complete phase-out of dental amalgam – i.e. mercury (“silver”) fillings. This commitment forms part of their national action plans to reduce the use of dental amalgam – as required by the EU Mercury Regulation, which was adopted in May 2017 to phase out mercury use.
In force since 1 January 2018, the EU Mercury regulation mandates important time-bound restrictions for Member States’ use and disposal of amalgam in dental practice. The Regulation supports Member States’ progress towards the ultimate goal of a dental amalgam phase-out in the EU. By 1 July 2019, each Member State was required to have set out a national action plan on measures to phase down the use of dental amalgam – these action plans were required to be publicly available within one month of their adoption (i.e. at the beginning of August 2019).
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