A dentist who worked in two Colorado prisons claimed in a new whistleblower lawsuit that he was fired after raising concerns about the state Department of Corrections’ continued use of tooth fillings that contain mercury.
Dentist Charles Hardin was fired April 4, hours after he emailed the DOC’s chief of dentistry, a registered nurse and a psychologist to suggest the prison system change its approach to such fillings to align with federal recommendations, he alleges in the lawsuit filed last week in Denver District Court.
Hardin, who became a contracted dentist for the DOC in late 2023, primarily worked in La Vista Correctional Facility, a women’s prison, and San Carlos Correctional Facility, a prison with a specialized population of inmates who have complex medical needs. Both prisons are located in Pueblo.
Hardin grew concerned that the prison system’s default approach to dental treatment was to use mercury amalgam, which is a mix of mercury and other metals, for dental procedures like fillings. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2020 warned that mercury fillings posed a risk of harm to particular patients, including pregnant and nursing people, people who want to become pregnant in the future and people with some pre-existing medical conditions.
The FDA found that mercury-containing fillings, which have been commonly used for more than a century, released small amounts of mercury vapor over time with regular wear and tear, and that while the vapors are typically...
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