Amalgam (silver) Fillings and the Health of Your Tooth

There are many views on amalgam fillings and your health. Some believe the mercury is detrimental to your health, where others don't believe them to be harmful.

Here at Warsaw Family Dentistry, we like to focus on the harms they cause for your dental health. Amalgam fillings, contract to hot and cold in your mouth differently than your tooth does. This constant contraction overtime can cause your tooth to become weak in certain areas and crack or break your tooth. Unlike resin (tooth colored) fillings, amalgam fillings are not bonded to your tooth. Instead they have to be mechanically placed by making undercuts in your tooth to wedge the filling in your tooth to hold. This means more of your tooth structure has to be removed to have an amalgam filling to stay in place. A third disadvantage is amalgam fillings, being metal, also block our x-rays from seeing some decay that may be leaking around your filling causing harm.

Due to all these reasons Dr. German only places resin fillings and will replace amalgam fillings for patients who would like to remove them from their mouth.