The words to use
- Dental amalgam
- A filling material made by mixing elemental mercury with other metals. Strong, cheap and durable, but grey.
- Minamata Convention
- A global treaty, signed in 2013, to protect health and the environment from mercury. In November 2025 its members set 2034 to phase out dental amalgam.
- Composite
- A tooth-coloured resin filling that bonds to the tooth. In back teeth it may fail more often than amalgam.
- Phase-down and phase-out
- Phase-down means steadily using less; phase-out means stopping by a set date, as the EU did in 2025.
- Net zero
- Removing as much greenhouse gas as is emitted. The NHS targets 2040 for emissions it controls and 2045 for wider ones.
