Dental Health Magazine Dental Health Magazine Issue 8

50 Issue #8, December 2017 What’re Amalgam and Composite Restorations? Article by DentistsNearby This amalgam restorative have been placed 15 years ago and still going strong. The reliability of dental amalgam restorations have been proven from time to time by the patient’s own testimonials and a very low reported failure rate. First, let’s talk about what exactly is amalgam? Dental amalgam is a metallic filling material which composed of a mixture of Silver-tin-copper alloy and mercury (mercury being the most controversial substance in the filling). Amalgam itself have been developed into many types , mainly: low-copper amalgam, high-copper amalgam, spherical amalgam or admixed amalgam; but we shall not dwell too deep into the technical aspect of it but instead we will talk about the properties of dental amalgam. One of the most intereting characteristics of dental amalgam is, it is not technique sensitive, which means amalgams have a very wide margin of error and even if it is not placed perfectly, the filling itself will still last. This is partly because of the dental amalgam’s “creeping” effect after placement, the creeping effect is the amalgam’s ability to “adapt” itself into the cavity of your tooth over time which is beneficial because it creates a tight margin with the outline of the cavity to seal itsel

Dental Health Magazine Dental Health Magazine Issue 8 | Page 50