Poland removes dental amalgam from public health care benefits, effectively phasing it out without any transition period. While adjusting its guaranteed benefits to the EU-phase out on amalgam fillings for children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers the Polish Ministry of Health has supprisingly announced to directly replace dental amalgam with alternatives for the entire population.
The Public Health Care will reimburse the treatment of cavities instead with:
- Glass ionomer cements,
- high density glass ionomer cements and
- resin-reinforced glass ionomer cements.
A welcome side effect of this regulation is that not all dental offices, but only those offices where amalgam is removed, must be equipped with amalgam separators. (There has been much discussion in Poland about the separator requirement and the associated costs.)
In September 2021 Civil Societies had released the Wroclaw Declaration calling to generally phase out dental amalgam.
Further information:
- Link to the legislation and the status of the processing:
👉 https://legislacja.rcl.gov.pl/projekt/12357009 - Our Reprort about the Wroclaw Declaration 👉 https://environmentalmedicine.eu/news/national-action-plan-civil-societies-release-wroclaw-declaration/
