Video Website powered by Einstein IndustriesBrian Gilbert, D.D.S.

Silver fillings overtime absorb moisture. As they do, they expand. When that occurs that can cause the filling to crack or many times the tooth can crack off, a part of the tooth, the corner of a tooth. I cannot tell how many times people will come and they will have a large filling in the tooth and a whole side of the tooth is broken off. That is not because the people were eating on something hard. Many times they will say they were having a bowl of soup and my tooth broke off. It is because the silver filling has caused that. The tooth-colored restorations do not do that. They do not expand and contract with moisture. They do not absorb moisture at all and they react to temperature, similar to natural tooth structure. Plus, they have the same hardness as enamel when properly placed so their wear over time like a natural tooth. Somehow, my patients, like I said I have been in practice for 15 years, we began doing solely only bonded or adhesive dentistry and composite fillings about nine years ago. That is all we have done and no silver filling since that time. I have patients that have fillings that are nine years old. Tooth-colored restorations that look as if we just put them in. In fact, we had a patient just yesterday that we had to get some updated x-rays on. We did the fillings at least eight or nine years ago and they look as if they are brand new.

I had bit something hard and it broke that silver cavity as well as the tooth that it was attached to so. Fortunately, he was able to fix it and gave me a pretty tooth again.

I use to hate seeing the, you know, the silver fillings when I would laugh and I like to laugh with my mouth open and stuff, I hated that. You know, so I was really always self-conscious about that and now, you know, I have nothing in there. It is all white.