Family Dentistry

To treat a cavity your dentist will remove the decayed portion of the tooth and then "fill" the area on the tooth where the decayed material once lived.  Fillings are also used to repair cracked or broken teeth and teeth that have been worn down from misuse (such as from nail-biting or tooth grinding).  Today, several dental filling materials are available. Teeth can be filled with gold; porcelain; silver amalgam (which consists of mercury mixed with silver, tin, zinc, and copper); or tooth-colored, plastic and glass materials called composite resin fillings. Our office uses composite resin for filling material.   Most dental insurance plans cover the cost of the composites up to the price of the silver filling, then the patient must pay the difference
Constant pressure from chewing, grinding or clenching can cause dental fillings to wear away, chip or crack. Although you may not be able to tell that your filling is wearing down, your dentist can identify weaknesses in your restorations during a regular check-up.  If the seal between the tooth enamel and the filling breaks down, food particles and decay-causing bacteria can work their way under the filling. You then run the risk of developing additional decay in that tooth. Decay that is left untreated can progress to infect the dental pulp and may cause an abscessed tooth.  If the filling is large or the recurrent decay is extensive, there may not be enough tooth structure remaining to support a replacement filling. In these cases, your dentist may need to replace the filling with a crown.

The composite resin (tooth-colored) fillings have come a long way in recent years. Their strength and longevity are now comparable to that of the silver fillings, but with much-enhanced esthetics. The dentist has the capability to match the filling exactly to the shade and color of your tooth so that no one else will ever know you had a cavity. Another advantage of these tooth-colored restorations is that the preparation is relatively conservative. Only decay is removed, and the filling is then bonded to the area that has been prepared. Silver fillings do not have the same bonding capacity, and therefore rely on mechanical retention to hold the filling in place. As a result, good tooth structure is taken away to create the ideal depth and undercuts required to achieve adequate retention. Another advantage of composite restorations is that they are typically less sensitive to hot or cold, as metal tends to conduct temperature more readily.