Maybe you forget to brush your teeth twice a day and floss once a day. Perhaps you skip professional dental cleanings. Or, maybe you do everything right, but you still get a cavity, an area of decay within a tooth.
If you need a cavity filled, you have options as to materials. Some are strong but aren’t tooth colored, while others are tooth colored but may not be as durable. The key is knowing how to make the most out of the life of your filling, so you don’t need to get the cavity refilled.
At Hometown Family Dental Centers, our expert dental professionals offer dental fillings for our patients who’ve developed decay in one or more teeth. We base the material on your unique needs and preferences, and we instruct you in how to take care of the fillings so they’ll last a long time. Here’s what you need to know.
Bacteria live in your mouth. They feed off sugar and other food debris left after you eat, producing acid in the process. If not removed by brushing or at least rinsing your mouth, the acids will eat away at the hard enamel covering your teeth, causing a hole to develop. If you don’t treat the hole quickly, it decays further and grows in size until it becomes a big problem.
There are several different dental filling options:
Composite resins are a mixture of glass or quartz filler and are shaded to match the color of your surrounding teeth. They’re reasonably durable and resistant to fracture when you need a small- or mid-sized filling that can tolerate moderate chewing pressure. They’re suitable for either your front or back teeth.
Dental amalgam is the traditional silver-colored filling made from a mixture of mercury, silver, tin, and copper. While they’re very durable and more affordable than composite resin fillings, they also stand out, since they don’t match the color of your teeth. This type of filling is still used extensively, but primarily on the back teeth, which aren’t readily visible.
Gold has been used as a filling material for at least the last 1,000 years because it’s so durable. Called inlays or onlays, these fillings are an alloy of gold, copper, and other metals. However, not only is it more costly than amalgam, but it also suffers from the same problem — it doesn’t match the color of your teeth. Therefore, these, too, are used primarily on the back teeth.
You take care of your fillings the same way you take care of your teeth. You need to brush and floss regularly and see the dentist twice a year for professional cleanings. If your teeth are prone to cavities, you should take particular care brushing around the edges of the filling, where it’s most likely to incur more decay.
It’s also vital that you don’t use your teeth as tools. Don’t rip open packages with your teeth or unscrew bottle caps. Don’t chew on pens, and certainly don’t crush ice between your teeth. All of these can lead to a fracture of a tooth or a filling, and you’ll be in worse shape than when you started.
This is especially true if you have composite resin fillings, which aren’t as strong as amalgam or gold and can wear and chip more easily. If you do get a chip, the dentist can repair the area so it doesn’t crack even more.
To learn more about fillings, or to schedule a professional evaluation, call Hometown Family Dental Centers in Fayetteville, Raeford, or Vass, North Carolina.
