Different Filling Materials

"Fill It Up With Regular" It's not that simple. there is variety of materials currently available to fill that cavity. Here's a brief summary:
Material	Silver Amalgam	Composite	Gold	Ceramic
What Is It?	An alloy of silver, mercury, and smaller amounts of tin and copper. ("Amalgam" is the proper term for any alloy of mercury - there's no such thing as "Mercury Amalgam")	Plastic resin reinforced with filler particles of silicon dioxide (glass) or zirconium. Composite is the concrete of filling materials.	Gold, platinum, palladium. Essentially the same as jewelry gold	Porcelain was the first ceramic material in dentistry. Current ceramics are its much stronger descendants.
Advantages	Lowest Cost	Low cost, white colour	Strong, durable. Suitable for crowns as well as fillings	Strong durable, and white. Suitable for crowns as well as fillings
Disadvantages	Poor Bonding Mercury content is controversialUnesthetic. Fills the hole, but adds no strength Expands and contracts, contributing to wear and stress cracking in large fillings	Fills the hole, but adds only little strength. Shrinks, contributing to wear and stress cracking in large fillings	Thecolour: love it or hate it. Higher Cost. Lab-produced; 2 appointments needed	Higher Cost Has traditionally taken 2 appointments. (We recently tried a computer system which makes them in the office, and may purchase one when the system is perfected.)
Cost	The cheapest	Slightly more than amalgam.	Up to several times that of amalgam	Similar to gold
Strength & Durability	Fair to good with small fillings. Poor with large fillings	Barely as good as amalgam; still poor in large fillings	Still unsurpassed: the "Gold Standard" of restorative materials. Lifetime is up to several times that of the cheap filling materials	Approaches gold