Amalgam (silver) fillings
The traditional, slightly old-fashioned filling of choice is amalgam. Made from 4 or 5 different metals which are spun down and placed into the tooth. Amalgam is an incredibly strong material – it can be up to 3x harder than natural tooth structure.
Amalgams are reserved for NHS treatment in the back of the mouth (you can have it at the front, but we wouldn’t advise it). Amalgams are a good options for core build-ups under a crown or in an area of exceptional heavy loading. As amalgam is stronger than tooth structure when there is any trauma to teeth, sadly the tooth that is likely to fracture and not the amalgam.
Amalgams are not glued in, unlike composite fillings, which means that the amalgam fillings need to be made into specific shapes and sizes to ensure that they don’t fall out.