Dental decay creates holes in our teeth. An organic acid produced by bacteria dissolves away the hard outer covering of our teeth. Fillings are a man-made material designed to fill in or restore the damaged areas of decayed teeth. Although not normally recommended, fillings can also replace areas of teeth that have been damaged by fracture. Broken teeth are usually best restored with crowns. Fillings can also repair areas of wear caused by brushing too hard and other habits.

Dental amalgam is a mixture of metals used to fill back teeth. Most people know amalgam fillings as silver fillings, as this is one of the major metals in the amalgam filling. One of the metals in the mixture is a small amount of mercury which has led some uninformed people to say that dental amalgam is dangerous. When mercury is combined with the other metals in dental amalgam, its chemical nature changes, forming a hard dense metal mixture. There is much less metalic mercury in dental amalgam than what patients are exposed to in food, air, and water.

Ongoing scientific studies conducted over the past 100 years continue to show that dental amalgam is safe to use as a restorative material in dentistry. Dental amalgam has withstood the test of time. Amalgam is a very durable material and has been used safely for more than 150 years. It is estimated that well over 1 billion amalgam restorations (fillings) are placed annually.

Modern dental science has greatly improved the strength and durability of white filling materials to allow us to place white filling materials in back teeth.............

Gold and porcelain are used as alternatives to amalgam fillings but have a higher cost and take longer to place. When a tooth has a very large defective silver filling or a major portion of the tooth breaks away, a porcelain to gold or a full gold crown generally works the best.