Question about dental fillings.

From what I understand, the silver ones are easier to 'install' and take less attention to detail.  One property of Mercury (in the silver fillings) is that it expands.  So, the dentist can plop some silver filling in the hole and it expands to fill the entire cavity, no gaps remaining for decay to progress.  The white fillings do not expand and take more time for the dentist to carefully ensure the whole cavity is packed with the filling material.  Some dentists may tell you that they cannot use a white filling in a specific case.  (because they don't want to take the time to do the job right).  If that ever happens, have them put a temporary filling in and find another dentist who will honor your wishes.  NEVER allow any dentist to put a silver filling in your mouth!

My only experience in losing a silver filling was when the dentist that did the filling probably did not drill away all of the decay (they are supposed to drill down to 'good' tooth material before filling cavity).  Anyways the decay kept eating away at my tooth under the silver filling and the cavity actually "caved in".  By that point the decay was so bad I had to get a root canal. 

Almost 3 years ago I was diagnosed with Mercury Toxicity- I had all my silver fillings replaced with white ones and then underwent Chelation therapy.  (OMG my symptons were awful).  Within 2 weeks I was feeling great.

I also had the root canaled tooth pulled- they usually have infeciton at the root shortly after being done and your body tries to expell this "dead tissue", i.e. the tooth, form your body.  You can actually carry anerobic infection in your jaw for YEARS.  This taxes your immune system without any specific symptoms that you would know came form the tooth.

A good book to read concerning all dental issues, especially mercury fillings and root canals is:

Tooth Truth by Frank Jerome, DDS

Oh- and remember, anytime you get your teeth polished and you have silver fillings, you are releasing Mercury vapors that you then breathe in and expose your body to.  NEVER go to the dentist and have this done (or silver fillings put in or removed) while pregnant.  I would think the white fillings are much safer since they have no mercury.

Most dentist now dont really use Amalgam fillings. Its very rare to find them and if you do its probably a very OLD dentist who is set in his ways and doesnt want to use the new stuff. As to the composite not lasting long. Any filling can fall out or break down just from use over time. as to the previous poster stating that amalgams are easier to use is not true. I being a dental assistant and have assisted in both techniques for filling cavities know that using amalgam is for one takes more time then composite. The composite is a flowable material and is easier to fill the cavity with as it comes from a tube that the dentist squirts into the tooth and uses a special light (light curer) to make it hard. Then they use a polishing burr and make it look like the top of a tooth with grooves. For amalgam we have to mix the amalgam in a machine that shakes it and then we have to put it in a tooth for the dentist to compact it into the hole and repeat until its full. then use another tool to smooth it out and take the excess off.. then another tool to shape it and make it like a tooth with grooves.. then it hardens on its own over a couple hours. So essentially the composite it less time consuming and is more esthetic being its white and looks like a tooth. Hence why most dentist use it rather then amalgams...

Personally i wouldnt worry about a composite breaking down at all. Just make sure your brushing 2x per day and also flossing which helps your from getting cavities inbetween your teeth.. Which is how most cavties start... :)

Hope that helps!

I got cavities in ALL of my porcelain fillings. they should have a new one out though and I forgot what it was called. It is also white and EXTREMELY expensive...but i know it works pretty good and way better then porcelain. you should see what type of material they are using. Silver fillings are very good especially now.

This is why I'm so stressed out about this, because I keep hearing totally conflicting information!!

A competent dentist will place composite fillings that will last your lifetime. My son had 4 silver fillings (his idiot father) they had open margins and an overhang and caused decay that was not visible, and went on to cause 4 abscesses in a yr. My sister has had an old amalgam filling fall right out.

Amalgam fillings are very crude and you have to remove healthy tooth to make it bond. Composite fillings only require the decay to be removed and then the tooth is banded (A must on molars!!!!!) to prevent overhang or open margins. If your dentist does not band a molar he is doing a poor job or you have a 1/2 inch space between each molar.

I cannot understand why any dentist today would place amalgam fillings in any person's mouth.

I have a mouth full of the silver fillings.  I would like to get them removed, but I read that you must go to a dentist who really knows what he's doing so that your body doesn't become poisoned with mercury.  The process sounds very tedious and I don't like the risk of having a stream of mercury suddenly going into my body.  So basically, I'm screwed either way (thanks Doc!) 

Also, I have heard people claim that the composite fillings contain BPA.  I've never verified that, so I don't know if it's true.

Oh and I, personally, would try to avoid dental work while pregnant.

I worked in a dental office when I was pregnant and this was before I knew any better about the differences between amalgam and composite fillings.  After looking into it, I learned that insurance covered 100% of amalgams and I'd have to pay the difference if I wanted composites.  Of course we were trying to save all the $$ we could so I told the dentist I wanted amalgam but he insisted on giving me composites and reported them as amalgam so I wouldn't have to pay.  I'd like to thank him but he doesn't work there anymore.  I think about it a lot because I now realize there are a lot of risks with amalgam fillings.  If I were you and you had a choice, I would definitely be glad you got composites instead.

They are called Ceradec or something like that.  They are as hard as your natural teeth.

Sorry to hijack your post.

My son has 2 cavities and has an apt on Tuesday to have them fixed. His insurance only covers the silver ones, so I'm told by the dentist. Could anyone point me to some info about this? Seems that there is a good mix here for and against them. I need to know what I should do, just have them fixed, or wait till I can afford to pay the difference for the white ones. Which may be a while since I'm not working!

I have all white composite fillings, my dentist won't use any other type.  I even have it on molars.  I have about 5 or 6 fillings and only one ever gave me a problem by breaking and needing to be redone (that was because of my MIL's nutbread, lol), however my insurance won't cover white fillings on back teeth so I had to pay out of pocket, but I figure the health benefits of not having amalgam is worth it.