A filling is used to treat a small hole, or cavity, in a tooth. To repair a cavity, a dentist removes the decayed tooth tissue and then fills the space with a filling material.
Tooth decay is damage to a tooth that can happen when harmful bacteria in your mouth make acids that attack the tooth enamel. This can lead to a small hole in a tooth, called a cavity.
There are several types of filling material currently available to repair cavities, including tooth- colored (composite) fillings and silver-colored (amalgam) fillings. Composite resin materials are increasingly used to fill teeth because many people prefer tooth-colored fillings and because composites continue to improve.