Your dentist treats caries by carefully removing all traces of diseased tissue, or decay from the affected tooth. Once the decay is removed, your dentist shapes the resulting cavity and fills it with a suitable restorative material. When direct materials are used, your dentist can often restore your decayed tooth in a single appointment. Indirect materials usually require a minimum of two appointments to place, because they must be fabricated before they are inserted into the cavity. In most cases, indirect restorations are fabricated in a dental laboratory.
Dental amalgam is the best known direct material.
To choose the treatment plan that's right for you, ask your dentist to explain the risks and benefits, advantages and disadvantages, and the costs, of the different alternatives which could be used to treat your specific problem. Metals Dental Amalgam Dental amalgam is a mixture of various metals, but is primarily composed of mercury, silver, copper and tin. Used in dentistry for more than 150 years, this material offers a number of important advantages. For example, it is inexpensive, highly durable, and easy to place. A decayed tooth can be treated in a single visit to the dentist in most cases.