The cost of one defective class II contact (with a posterior composite)

Tooth-coloured restorations in posterior teeth are becoming increasingly popular, with the results of a survey of 1,000 UK dentists in 2002 and 2008 indicating a decline from 86%1 to 59%2 of restorations in posterior teeth formed in amalgam, with restorations formed in resin composite increasing accordingly. However, early in the posterior composite era, results in a clinical trial of amalgam vs composite, organized at the University of Liverpool, indicated 2.5 times more defective contact points with composite restorations than with amalgam.3 The Siqveland matrix band was likely to be the villain of the piece here because it was frequently used with amalgam restorations, and clinicians of that time (myself among them!) thought that it would also be suitable for composite restorations. This was not the case, because the amalgam forces matrices of this type out in a way that cannot be achieved with composite.