We like white fillings for their natural appearance and near perfect color match we can get with your teeth. Porcelain and composite fillings also bond to your teeth, helping to restore your tooth's natural strength. We now offer same day porcelain fillings with the use of our CEREC computer. We have always done porcelain fillings but they were quite expensive and time consuming because it required 2 appointments with a lab involved and that drove up the costs. CEREC fabricates the restorations through computers so it is only a one time visit. The dentistry is the same. How we get the restoration is just different now.
Our recommendation is when any filling needs to be replaced, it may be an opportunity to improve esthetics in that area with a filling or CEREC. Your smile will immediately brighten up with these changes. "White/composite" fillings last about 3-5 years in the back teeth. They are now as stable as silver fillings, but they are "prettier". We can still do composites in the posterior, but generally they need to be redone within 3-5 years.
In this photograph, the two teeth used to be filled with dark silver fillings and we replaced them with the beautiful bonded restorations.