Dental Filling Choices Advances in modern dental materials and techniques
increasingly offer new ways to create more pleasing, natural-looking smiles.
Researchers are continuing their often decades-long work developing esthetic
materials, such as ceramic and composite resin that mimic the appearance
of natural teeth. As a result, dentists and patients today have several choices
when it comes to selecting materials used to repair missing, worn, damaged
or decayed teeth. The more traditional dental restoratives, which we already
Known are gold, base metal alloys and dental amalgam.

     Dental amalgam is a compound of mercury and other metals and is often
called a silver filling because of its appearance. While dental amalgam continues
to be a commonly used restorative material, some have raised concern because of
its mercury content. This issue still a controversy !. The researches up till now
still summarized that although mercury by itself is classified as a toxic material,
the mercury in amalgam chemically combines with other metals to render it
stable and safe for use in filling and restoring teeth. So the main reasons for
changing the old amalgam filling today are because of the corrosion, secondary
decay, leakage and esthetic concern.

What’s Right for Me?
With so many choices, how do you know what’s right for you? The ultimate decision
about what to use is best determined by the patient in consultation with the dentist.