Tooth-colored fillings are a popular alternative to traditional metal dental restorations like silver amalgam fillings. Made from a blend of plastic resins and silica materials, they can be closely matched to your teeth’s color.
Once a tooth has been numbed, the decayed portion is removed and the composite resin is applied. The entire procedure takes less than an hour and can be completed with little to no discomfort.
Less Sensitivity
Tooth colored fillings Bowling Green KY are made of composite resin that blends with your natural teeth, creating a seamless restoration. This is important for both the strength of your tooth and your smile. Tooth-colored fillings are also a good choice for patients with sensitivity issues. Traditional metal amalgam fillings conduct heat and cold more easily than your natural tooth enamel, leading to sensitivity when drinking hot or cold liquids. Composite and ceramic fillings, on the other hand, are better insulators. Desensitizing toothpaste and fluoride help manage sensitivity, but fillings address the cause of sensitivity by covering exposed root surfaces.
Tooth-colored fillings also require less tooth preparation than traditional amalgam fillings, meaning Dr. Utz will need to drill less of your original tooth. This means a more comfortable experience for our patients.
Less Tooth Removal
For decades, cavity repair involved adding an unsightly metal silver or amalgam filling to a tooth. While durable, these fillings were aesthetically unappetizing and had a mixture of metals including mercury. They also did not bond very well to natural tooth structure and often required more healthy structure to be removed.
Tooth-colored fillings are made of composite resin and can be shaded to closely match your enamel for a natural-looking smile. These fillings can be used to treat teeth with decay and even small cracks and chips, but they are more suited for use in front teeth or in visible areas of the mouth. This allows Dr. Utz to remove less healthy tissue when repairing cavities and means that you will have a stronger tooth after treatment is completed.
Less Time in the Dentist’s Office
Tooth colored fillings match your tooth enamel perfectly and are virtually invisible in your mouth. This makes them more aesthetically pleasing than traditional metal fillings. The entire procedure is quick and requires only one dental appointment. After numbing you up, your dentist will remove any remaining decay and clean the area. They will then etch and bond the area before layering in the composite resin material.
While silver amalgam fillings require removal of healthy tooth structure in order to hold them in place, modern composite resin materials can be bonded directly to the tooth structure. This provides more conservative restorative dentistry and protects your child’s teeth’s health, strength, and long-term viability. The resulting restorations also look more natural and can be used to repair chips, cracks, or minor gaps between teeth.
Less Pain
With proper anesthesia, tooth colored fillings Bowling Green KY can be a painless procedure. However, everyone’s comfort tolerance is different, so we recommend communicating openly with your dentist about your fears and concerns before the appointment. This allows us to address your concerns before the procedure begins and ensures a comfortable experience. Another benefit of tooth-colored fillings is that they require less tooth preparation than metal amalgam fillings do, which means more of your natural teeth are left intact. This leads to a stronger tooth once the filling is completed. The strength of composite resin materials also makes tooth-colored fillings a great option for repairing back teeth, like molars.
Ultimately, tooth colored fillings can significantly reduce the discomfort caused by cavities and provide you with a beautiful smile! To keep your mouth healthy and cavity-free, it is important to schedule regular dental cleanings at MINT dentistry.
Less Metal
For a long time, metal fillings were the standard in cavity repair. Made from an amalgam of mercury, silver, tin, and copper, these fillings offer some advantages but can be a major inconvenience for many patients. For example, metal fillings leave dark spots in the smile and can aggravate hot and cold sensitivity for people with sensitivities to metals. Additionally, they can present health risks since mercury is a toxic substance.
Composite resin fillings are an alternative to traditional metal fillings and offer many advantages that align with modern dentistry goals for aesthetics, preservation of tooth structure, and health safety. In addition to their aesthetically pleasing appearance, composite fillings bond directly with the tooth structure which allows less healthy tissue to be removed in the preparation process.
