Download or read book Report of the informal global WHO consultation with policymakers in dental public health, 2021 written by and published by World Health Organization. This book was released on 2021-11-17 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite advances in modern dentistry, untreated dental caries in permanent teeth was reported as one the most prevalent conditions assessed in 2017 Global Burden of Disease. The restorative model for managing dental caries was developed in the 1900s, alongside dental amalgam as one of the restorative materials. The Minamata Convention on Mercury (2013) is an international legally binding treaty that aims to protect the human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds. The convention addresses mercury-added products, including dental amalgam, which is made of approximately 50% of elemental mercury by weight and proposes nine measures to phase down the use of dental amalgam. In March 2021, the WHO Oral Health Programme conducted an informal consultation with policymakers in the field of dental public health to better understand progress in phasing down the use of dental amalgam at global, regional, and national levels. This report describes the 2021 consultation, which had objectives to understand the extent of implementation of the nine phase-down measures; to gather knowledge of the use of mercury-free alternatives to dental amalgam; and to identify additional measures being implemented to phase down the use of dental amalgam.