Tooth fillings

These days, there are many different kinds of tooth fillings that are used by dentists to fix and repair your teeth. Indeed, they are comprised of a variety materials ranging from gold to ceramics and while many of us think that fillings are used just to repair cavities, they’re actually used to fix cracks, chips, seal root canals and even more.

Normally, fillings are required to ensure that your teeth are structurally sound. Over time, decay slowly wears down at the edges, eventually creating minor holes in the outer enamel and exposing the tooth’s inner dentine. In order to ensure that the roots don’t become compromised, dentists use tooth fillings to seal the holes and strengthen your teeth.

In root canals and major cavities, fillings act to strengthen your teeth and protect them from rapid decay. In some circumstances, dentists might also use a special filling known as an indirect filling that is essentially a pre-made filling that fits the hole exactly. These are known for their strength, but also most unfortunately, their price. The good news however, is that while these take a few visits to ‘install’, they really are worth it, often lasting for many years.

Indeed, fillings have to be perhaps the most common dental treatment available. Typically while amalgam fillings were always popular, today, it’s porcelain, ceramic and amalgam fillings that are still being used because while ceramic / porcelain fillings provide great aesthetics, silver amalgam also provides an affordable alternative that’s accessible for just about anyone.

Recently, there has been a great deal of speculation about the risks of amalgam based fillings due to the fact that the compound is a mix of mercury, silver and other metals. However, time and time again, medical studies have shown that amalgam is safe, affordable and most importantly, in over 150 years of usage, there’s not been one reported case of mercury poisoning because when bonded with other metals, mercury is a perfectly safe and harmless material. Without it, fillings would be a great deal more tricky.

For those undergoing a tooth filling, it’s definitely not a process to be scared of. Typically all that’s done by the dentist is the removal of decayed material and then the ‘filling’ of the hole with the chosen compound. The filling is then dried, shaped and polished so that when the job’s done, you don’t even notice it’s there. All this is done under a local anesthetic, ensuring that the area is completely numb and the treatment, painless.

Tooth fillings are an essential part of dentistry, and all too often people will neglect regular checkups only to find out a few years later that they really did need a filling years back. When this happens, the dentist may be forced to perform an extraction or if the tooth can be saved, a root canal. By visiting a dentist regularly, you ensure that your teeth are in good condition and that hopefully, you’ll have them for a very long time.