When Can You Eat and Drink after a Tooth Filling?
There are different kinds of filling materials that dentist commonly use. The two main ones are called amalgam (grey fillings) and composite (white fillings).
Grey fillings are made of an alloy of several metals which include silver, copper, zinc, tin and mercury. This alloy called amalgam is used to fill a tooth. Amalgam does not become hard instantly after the procedure. It takes about 24 hours for a grey filling to harden completely. Dentists recommend waiting one hour after the procedure to eat anything, and to wait 24 hours before eating solid foods.
White fillings are made of composite, which is a white paste of resin that hardens instantly when exposed to blue light. Therefore, if you have just had a white filling, you can eat and drink right after the procedure.