The unfortunate truth is that many patients will have to deal with tooth decay at some point in their lives, if they haven’t already. Tooth decay isn’t particularly difficult to prevent. In fact, with consistently good hygiene and preventive care, you have an excellent chance at avoiding it. However, decay can develop in a tooth naturally from the presence of certain harmful oral bacteria, which constantly form plaque to cling to your teeth. When tooth decay develops and a cavity forms in your tooth structure, restoring your tooth may require cleaning and filling the cavity with biocompatible material. For many patients, a tooth-colored filling can offer several important benefits over more conventional metal ones.
1. It blends in with the tooth’s appearance
For people who only know fillings as the traditional metal restorations from years ago, the fact that fillings are often now tooth-colored can come as a pleasant surprise. This is possible due to the customizable, biocompatible composite resin that modern fillings are made from. Unlike traditional fillings made from metal, tooth-colored ones are crafted from a more biocompatible mixture of acrylic and quartz-like particles, which can be tinted to the specific color and shade of your tooth. The filling blends in discreetly with your tooth’s healthy, natural structure, creating a restoration that fits in naturally with your smile’s appearance.
2. It’s completely free of metal
Being completely free of metal is an important factor in a tooth-colored filling’s appearance, but it also provides a wide range of benefits for the quality of restorative treatment. Biocompatible fillings are safer for more patients, including younger children, elderly patients, pregnant women, and people with metal allergies. Given the importance of treating tooth decay as soon as possible, the benefits of being metal free make tooth-colored fillings vital to many people’s oral health care.
3. It does a better job of protecting your tooth
After a filling is placed in a cavity-stricken tooth, the restoration can be essential in restoring the tooth’s strength and integrity. The filling replaces the structure that was lost by the decay, which provides more support for the tooth as you bite and chew with it. In addition, your tooth filling will have to protect the exposed tooth structure from oral bacteria from that point on. With a biocompatible filling, the resin can be more securely bonded to your tooth structure than metal can, which creates a more durable and resilient protective seal against cavity-causing oral bacteria.
Benefit from a tooth-colored filling
Today’s tooth fillings are often designed to be tooth-colored, but their more lifelike appearance is one of their many important benefits. To learn more, schedule a consultation with us by calling the office of Dr. Stuart Dexter in Prairie Village, KS, today at 913-362-8200.