Most people recognize dental amalgam as silver fillings.
Dental amalgam is a mixture of mercury, and an alloy of silver, tin and copper.
Mercury makes up about 40-50 percent of the compound. Mercury is used to bind the metals together and to provide a strong, hard durable filling. After years of research, mercury has been found to be the only element that will bind these metals together in such a way that can be easily manipulated into a tooth cavity. How mercury effects the body is in large part determined by what type of mercury is present. Amalgam is a very durable material and has been used for more than 150 years.