Why Metal Fillings are Not Good For Teeth

For the last 20 years, I have tried to educate my patients that having metal fillings in their teeth is not good for their teeth. We were all taught in our high school physics class that all metals expand a large amount when heated while non metal materials expand but only a little.If you have metal fillings in your teeth and you have hot coffee, hot tea, a hot potato or hot pizza, the metal filling is going to get larger in your tooth. Teeth ,on the other hand ,are made of glass. Glass will expand when heated by hot coffee but not nearly as much as the metal filling.  So what happens?  The tooth structure next to the metal filling develops micro cracks and eventually,  a wall of the tooth will fracture off just like in 

the picture below.

Now why would you want to cut down healthy tooth structure for a crown and pay me $1750 when instead, I could have simply removed the metal filling and replaced it with a bonded resin filling at about $375.

I not only want to save your tooth structure but also save you money...On the other hand, I can make more money if you don't take my recommendations. (Just kidding)