Kennedy asked by 150 Dentists & other health professionals to use 'stroke of a pen' to stop mercury-based fillings in federal programs

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers for Dental Choice today presents a letter to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from 150 dentists, dental hygienists and others in oral health care calling for the immediate end of mercury-based dental programs in federal programs: https://mercuryfreedentistry.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/dental-professionals-to-kennedy-final.pdf.

Noting that dental amalgam ("deceptively marketed as 'silver fillings') are 50% mercury, and pointing to "a deep concern about major uses of mercury" as a "highlight" of Kennedy's career, they call on the Secretary to use "a stroke of the pen" to stop the purchasing of dental amalgam by the U.S. Public Health Service and other federal agencies. 

The term "stroke of the pen"—made famous by President Kennedy (the Secretary's uncle) when he acted to end segregation in federal housing—has become the theme of the national movement to end mercury-based dentistry in federal programs. https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2025/03/27/heres-how-rfk-jr-can-ban-silver-fillings-american-dentistry-column/ 

"Kennedy faces neither regulatory barriers nor public pushback to stop mercury fillings in public programs," says Charlie Brown of Consumers for Dental Choice, who presented the letter. "By cutting off purchasing of amalgam, he can end amalgam use immediately and without any loss of dental services to a single soldier, sailor, or Native American." Brown further notes that the major American companies exited making amalgam because of its health risks—so the U.S. government is foolishly buying amalgam from Australian importer SDI: "subsidizing Australian jobs to buy a toxic product."

Pointing to US FDA's strong warnings against dental amalgam five years ago, the letter castigates the federal bureaucracies who "refuse to change"—in contrast to the rapid ongoing shift in private dentistry to mercury-free. 

Soldiers and sailors, Native Americans, the institutionalized, and low-income families "deserve better that mercury from government dental programs," the letter says. It notes that alternatives are superior technically in preserving tooth structure, that the costs of materials are similar, and that mercury-free is appropriate for any and all patients," based on their "first-hand experience."

For further information contact Charlie Brown, Consumers for Dental Choice, [email protected]; office 202.544.6333, cell & text 202.246.7642.

SOURCE Consumers for Dental Choice