A CLINICAL STUDY OF DENTAL AMALGAM RESTORATION -Reasons for replacement and duration of primary restoration-

치과용 아말감 충전의 임상적 고찰 -재충천의 이유 및 기간에 대한 조사보고-

Ease of manipulation, adequate mechanical properties, long years of experience and economical cost are the factors which have established amalgam as the most widely used material for dental restorations. But amalgam restoration may require replacement because of secondary caries, fracture, "fall-out", dimensional change, tarnish or corrosion etc.. These failures of amalgam restorations seem to arise from failures during operations rather than from the inherent shortcomings of the material itself or of the patient's mismanagement. It is anticipated that notonly number of analgam restoration, but failures will be increase after more extensive utilization of the medical insurance which began in 1977. Then authors think that it would be helpful for the development of better treatment in daily dental practice, to know the duration of amalgam restorations and the reasons for their replacement. The data for this survey was compiled from 2, 856 out-patients of the Department of Dentistry, Ewha Woman's University Hospital from January 1975 to December 1977. 260 cases among 1,718 fillings were studied, of which 205 cases both had a single reason for replacement and recognized the date of the previous filling. The results obtained were as follows; 1. Amalgam fillings were 58. 5 percent of all dental restorative materials. Of these, 15. 13 percent of the amalgam restorations had to be replaced. 2. The first reason for replacement of amalgam restorations was secondary caries (56.10%), the second was fracture (23.80%) and the third was "fall-out" (8.78%). 3. Among those amalgms requiring replacement, 52.2 percent had been in place less than 3 years, 70.7 percent within 5 years and 89.8 percent had been in place less than 10 years. Only 10.2 percent had been in place more than 10 years.