Cracked Silver Filling Removed and Replaced with Composite

This tooth had an old, average-size silver filling. However, the silver (amalgam) filling had several crack lines in it. When a silver filling has cracks in it like these, bacteria can get through the cracks and cause dental decay. The amalgam filling was removed which revealed a significant amount of decay. Fortunately, the decay did not go into the nerve of the tooth and it was restored with a large, bonded composite.