/oss/taxonomy/term/4691/all en /oss/article/health-general-science/biting-dental-fillings <p>The common word in French for dental fillings is “plombage”, which may sound a little surprising since it roughly translates to “to fill with lead”. That is because if you had a cavity in France in the 18th century, a dentist would have filled it with that metal. Lead melts easily and the molten lead was poured into the cavity. Hopefully, the dentist had steady hands! Luckily, given that lead is highly toxic, dental fillings today do not contain it.  </p> Fri, 24 Jul 2020 16:00:00 +0000 Caitlin Bard, OSS Intern 8335 at /oss