Contemporary dentistry offers a wide range of filling options to fill in and protect the part of your tooth where a cavity has been. Tooth coloured composite filings closely match the natural shade of your tooth, so nobody needs to know you had cavities. They also require the minimum amount of tooth structure to be removed, helping to preserve as much of your tooth as possible.
When placing a white filling we first choose a shade so that the new filling looks like the rest of the teeth in that area. At our office we use a dual layer technique with different materials that bond either to the internal (dentin) or external (enamel) structure of teeth.
Tooth coloured composite fillings closely match the natural shade of your tooth, so nobody needs to know you had cavities.
We also provide silver amalgam fillings for molars and premolars. Silver fillings are shown scientifically to last longer than white fillings in the back of the mouth where bite forces are particularly strong. Silver amalgam fillings are polished after they have had a chance to completely set (minimum 24 hours). Polishing amalgam helps the metal to withstand the wet oral environment better. They are polished at the next cleaning appointment but we can set aside a dedicated visit for this polishing.
The vast majority of white fillings done at our office include a base layer of, Fuji IX(TM), resin modified glass ionomer which bonds to dentin before a composite is placed over top which bonds to the enamel and the glass ionomer. Where there is no enamel such as on an exposed root we will use only the glass ionomer. We have found that in our practice that this 2-layer technique reduces sensitivity and the risk of failure in the future.
The composites used most often at our often include:
The glass ionomers used most often at our office include:
