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A dental filling is done to restore damaged or broken tooth. A tooth can get damaged due to dental caries, injury, or due to excessive biting forces. The dentist first prepares the tooth by removing any decayed part, if present, and then fills it with dental cement. Dental fillings can be direct or indirect. Direct dental fillings are placed directly inside the patient's mouth after the tooth is prepared. The commonly used types of cement for direct fillings are amalgams (silver filling), composites (tooth-colored filling), and glass ionomer cement. Indirect fillings are like tooth-colored fillings, but they are fabricated in a dental lab. It is done when the tooth is damaged to the extent that the remaining tooth structure cannot support a direct filling.