Amalgam is a mixture of hard metals with the addition of mercury. This filling uses the property of mercury to dissolve some metals, after which the mixture easily takes the form of a tooth cavity, where it hardens firmly.
In modern practice, copper, silver amalgam and the so-called high copper amalgam (silver amalgam with a significant addition of copper are used. Amalgam is mainly used for filling back teeth.
Dentists often find various diseases in patients with amalgam fillings. Observations of diseases resulting from intoxication (poisoning) of the body with mercury allow us to conclude that it is unreasonable to use amalgam as a filling material.
Many doctors claim that mercury vapor can be released from an amalgam filling during friction – for example, during chewing. And these vapors are toxic to living cells, even if contact with them lasts only a minute. Further, mercury enters the lungs, from where it is absorbed into the blood and distributed throughout the body. It settles in the kidneys, liver and brain.
The advantages of metal seals are:
• their negative shrinkage and insensitivity to setting in a wet tooth cavity. This property of amalgam is unique,
• an amalgam filling lasts a very long time. If it is installed in accordance with all the rules, then in terms of strength it has no competing materials.
The disadvantages of amalgam fillings include:
• a permanent metallic sheen that makes this filling stand out from the natural color of the tooth,
• amalgam, due to the high coefficient of expansion, can eventually lead to chipping of the tooth wall,
• it takes quite a long time for the amalgam to harden (2-3 hours). The filling needs to be polished the next day.
• Amalgam fillings do not have tightness: at the junction of the seal and the tooth, the seal always depressurizes. Amalgam fillings do not fit tightly, so the formation of secondary caries is inevitable under them,
• With amalgam fillings, it is impossible to give the teeth an anatomical shape.
Today, dentistry has a large selection of filling materials that are characterized by high strength, safety and aesthetics. In addition, some people have an increased sensitivity to the metals that make up amalgam fillings, and for such patients it is better to replace amalgam fillings with more modern ones.
Therefore, the amalgam filling is often replaced with a composite one (composite fillings fit correctly and look beautiful) or amalgam fillings are removed.
So, if the amalgam filling has lost its tightness, then it is necessary to remove it. The violation of the tightness of the tooth is indicated by a black gap between the tooth and the filling.
