Tin and copper release related to charge transfer between short-circuited amalgam and gold alloy electrodes.

Short-circuited electrodes of dental amalgams and a gold alloy were used in an attempt to study a possible relationship between the quantity of copper and tin ions released into an electrolyte and the charge transferred between the electrodes. It was found that under the experimental conditions used the quantity of tin ions released was related to the charge transferred between the conventional amalgam and the gold alloy. The same tendency was found using a saliva sample which confined and collected the released tin ions into a small volume when the conventional amalgam specimen was short-circuited to the gold alloy specimen in vivo.