Dental restoration, dental fillings, or simply fillings are treatments used to restore the function, integrity, and morphology of missing teeth structure resulting from caries or external trauma as well as to the replacement of such structure  Restoring a teeth to good form and function requires two steps:

1. preparing the teeth for placement of restorative material or materials, and

2. placement of these materials.

materials used may be gold, amalgam, dental composites, glass ionomer cement, or porcelain, among others.