Published September 2026
- Decay has gone into the tooth
- The tooth is numbed and the decay is drilled out
- The silver mix is packed into the cleaned-out shape in one solid piece
- It's carved to meet the bite and sets hard within the visit
- The billing code just counts how many surfaces of the tooth it covers
Who usually does it
general dentist. Done in every general office.
One question worth asking
How many surfaces does this filling cover?
Silver filling, four or more surfaces
D2161. Covers most of the tooth; often a sign a crown is the next step.
A silver filling is a durable metal mix packed into a cleaned-out cavity, used mostly on back teeth. The four codes differ only by how many surfaces of the tooth the filling covers; a surface is one side or the top of the tooth.
The tooth is numbed, the decay is drilled out, and the metal mix is packed into the shaped cavity and carved to meet the bite. It sets hard within the visit. The four codes only count surfaces, so a filling that wraps around two sides of the tooth is a different line from one on the chewing surface alone. Most plans file this as Basic. What they actually pay varies by plan.
Codes for this
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