Dental amalgam. I: Conventional and non-gamma-2 amalgams

The disadvantage of conventional amalgams lies in the fact that they form the so-called gamma-2 phase, which corrodes very easily. The gamma-2 phase can be reduced or suppressed by either adding powder with globules of a eutectic silver-copper alloy in portions of 9-33% to a common filing powder (dispersion type alloy) or by producing the powder from a homogeneous alloy of silver, copper and tin (one-component alloy). NG-2 amalgams show noticeably better physical properties than conventional amalgams. Nevertheless, they, too, corrode.