the.com/filling

The part of the tooth nobody admires but everybody needs.

means A material packed into a cavity in a tooth to restore its shape and stop decay from spreading — or, more broadly, whatever substance occupies the inside of something hollow, from pies to sandwiches.

from Simply "fill" plus the noun-forming suffix "-ing," turning the action into the thing itself. "Fill" traces back through Old English "fyllan" to a very old Germanic root meaning "to make full," itself kin to "full." No hidden drama here — the word has always just meant the stuff that fills.

amalgam age
Silver fillings have been used since the 1830s
gold option
Gold fillings can last over 20 years
mercury myth
Amalgam is roughly half mercury, bound safely in alloy
composite rise
Tooth colored resin now outsells metal fillings
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