@Byrnsie30
So sorry for your loss x!
Sorry this is long-winded but I was also confused once at the amount of conflicting stuff on the internet over silver (mercury) amalgams so have been doing some serious reading since last summer and this is some of what I found:
Silver / Amalgam fillings contain 50% mercury and are now banned in a number of European countries, and in California they are putting up notices in dental offices to warn people of possible risk. If I remember rightly the British Dental Association (BDS) advises not to have them placed / removed during pregnancy, as amalgams give off a mercury vapour that is absorbed into your body and especially by the fetus which can possibly lead to disorders on the Autism Spectrum.
This is still a controversial subject as clearly the BDS doesn't want to admit the harm mercury fillings cause because of the liability they would open themselves up to. Interestingly though, the American Dental Association has now issued a statement saying they are in no way responsible for anything put into a patients mouth if it causes harm to the patient (great!?), that is after insisting for years that dental amalgams are safe.
No dentist working for the BDS (or ADA in America) is going to say Amalgams are unsafe if you ask them (even if they themselves doubt it) as they are obliged to back the stance taken by their member organisation if they want to stay in their job.
Until recently I had a very large amalgam filling which I was thinking of having replaced with a white one. I asked my dentist about the amalgam controversy about 5 years ago after researching it on the internet and she said there was no health risk with amalgams, but if I wanted she could remove and replace it with a white one for £300. In the end I thought Well she's a dentist and she's working with the stuff and she seems alright with it, so I left it alone.
However last year I started reading up on the whole preparing your body for a baby thing and it kept cropping up, now the evidence against amalgams seems to be mounting up. This time when I asked my same dentist if she could remove it (according to the safe protocol which is blazened across the internet nowadays) she said over the last few years, things had changed in dealing with mercury amalgams and she couldn't remove the filling safely for me.
So I went to a Mercury Free Dentist in Edinburgh, had my amalgams, (the large one mentioned above actually cost £150 as opposed to £300!) removed safely and have just finished my 3rd month detoxifying. I am coming up for 38 so really want to minimise my risk of miscarriage and birth defects and as I had a cousin who was autistic I know what a struggle it was for his parents to deal with.
If you ever decide to have your amalgams removed, it is advisable to have it done (at least about 5 months) before you plan a pregnancy, followed by a detoxification programme to remove mercury from your body. They need to be removed following the correct protocol (rubber dam, suction, nose and eye mask and sectioning), the best thing to do is look up your nearest dentist who is a member of the British Mercury Free Dentists. Never just go to a regular dentist in your locality and get them drilled out as they are unlikely to follow the safe protocol required.
If you still have dental amalgams in and are pregnant then you should avoid having them polished by your dentist as this stimulates release of mercury vapours, as do hot drinks, chewing gum and grinding your teeth. Don't have any amalgam fillings placed or removed while you are pregnant or immediately prior to conception as it can harm the pregnancy.
www.icnr.com/articles/mercuryamalgamtoxicity.html
Hope this helps x