For many, many years, getting a new dental filling meant only one thing: the dentist would use silver amalgam to fill the tooth. In fact, amalgam is still in use to this day, which means it has been consistently used in dentistry for over 100 years. Silver amalgam is an extremely durable material made from a combination of silver, zinc, tin, copper and mercury. Although studies have not shown conclusively that the amount of mercury present in this dental material is harmful to people, it is understandable that some dental patients shy away from silver amalgam for that reason. Fortunately, modern dental technology provides dentists with several other materials to use for fillings. One of the most popular is porcelain. Here are a few reasons why porcelain fillings can be a better choice than amalgam.
- Porcelain is tooth-colored, and can be made to exactly match the shade of the patient’s natural teeth. This means that porcelain fillings are virtually invisible inside a person’s mouth. Silver amalgam starts out silver in color, but over time it turns very dark until it’s almost black in color – not exactly an attractive choice for a filling! But porcelain stays tooth-colored for the life of the filling.
- Porcelain does not contain mercury. As we mentioned before, even though the amount of mercury in silver amalgam is quite small, many people would still prefer to avoid it altogether. Porcelain dental material contains no mercury at all.
- Porcelain bonds to the patient’s natural tooth, as opposed to silver amalgam, which does not. This means that your dentist will have to remove a smaller amount of the healthy tooth when preparing it for a new filling.
- Porcelain is very durable and strong. Teeth that have been filled with porcelain dental material are just as strong as natural teeth.
- Porcelain won’t expand and contract the way silver amalgam will. Amalgam reacts much more to variations and temperature than porcelain. This means that every time you drink a hot cup of coffee, or eat ice cream, the amalgam in your fillings expands and contracts. This makes these fillings much more susceptible to cracking over time, which can also crack the surrounding natural tooth. Porcelain does not expand and contract, making them less likely to crack due to changes in temperature.
There are several good reasons why silver amalgam has been used for so many years and why it is still offered by many dentists. But there’s no doubt that porcelain offers the patient many advantages over amalgam. For more information about these two materials, and to help decide which is best for you, talk to your dentist
