White vs. Silver fillings, Your experience?

I forgot all about having white fillings until this post was brought up and I've had them for years.

I have old silver ones, newer silver ones and newer white ones. If it's a tooth in the front of the mouth that's visible when talking or smiling I'd go white. I have no problems with either silver or white new ones. If money is a factor the white ones cost more.

I went to college with my dental plan. My buddy and his brother have a practice together. And when this whole mercury thing came up a decade or so ago, both were of the opinion that if you have your old fillings removed you end up getting far more exposure to mercury than if you leave them as is...

But, they also recommend that it's not a bad idea for new fillings to be the composite stuff. Yeah, it can crack or chip out but it's one less thing to worry about health wise.

I can tell you I have three front teeth that got chipped right after they came in as my permenant teeth. We keep them cleaned up and shaped with the composite stuff. It does wear out and either need a touch-up every few years (the advantage of a college buddy who is a dentist, it's free) or replacement after about 10-12yrs. That is not too bad really and it's not that expensive.

Something to consider is if you grind your teeth at night...I am not hard on my front teeth but really can grind my molars at night so my buddy told me to never get any new fillings with the composite and also to never have any molars capped with porcelain...so the one cap I have is gold and have not needed a filling since I was a kid...but it's nice to be aware of that side of things.

Cdeming wrote in post #6688633
Well, this thread is right up my alley...

I'm a dental assistant and my boss never puts amalgam in anymore. Chewing on silver fillings drives the silver down into your teeth, causing them to crack. If they crack, you could end up getting a root canal, and then a crown, which would be around 2000 dollars total for both. So go with the composite. It's more flexible and allows your teeth to give more naturally.

Man...this post made me sound really boring...

Hey that happened to me. I had to get a root canal on a tooth that had a silver filling. Man did that ever suck.

I say get white - you'll get horrible specular highlights if shooting yourself, open-mouthed, with a strobe.