An in vitro study of galvanic currents between amalgam and gold alloy electrodes in saliva and in saline solutions.

The galvanic currents between amalgam and gold alloy electrodes were higher in saline solutions than in saliva. Conventional amalgam supported higher currents than high copper amalgams when short-circuited with a gold alloy. The galvanic currents were not affected or affected only to a very small degree when whole saliva from different persons were compared. Higher currents were recorded when short-circuiting conventional amalgam and gold alloy electrodes using parotid saliva than when using whole saliva collected from one person. However, removing molecules with a molecular weight higher than 10(4) from whole and parotid saliva did not seem to affect the galvanic currents.