Dental fillings – what you need to know

 

   When you have a cavity in your mouth, your dentist may suggest you get it filled,    

   so all thanks to technological advances, dentists and patients today have several  

   choices when it comes to selecting materials to fill cavities. But still one of the most

   common misconceptions we find in dentistry, is that most people think that all white

   fillings are the same. This is far from the truth.

   There are fundamentally two types of white fillings, porcelain and resin. We often    

   compare the different between porcelain fillings and resin fillings to the difference

   between your plastic picnic plates versus your fine china dinnerware. They are like chalk

   

and cheese, totally different products.

   In terms of terminology plastic white filling can be referred to composite or resin.

   Porcelain fillings are often called inlays, ceramic. Both types of restorations utilize the

   same blue light, it is used to set hard the cement material. The resin is placed in soft and set

   hard with the light, whereas the porcelain restorations are hard prefabricated filling that is

   bonded into the cavity. When a filling is on the larger size requiring corners or what is termed as

   cusp replacements. We always recommend porcelain reconstruction of the tooth to ensure that

   you are not back in the dental chair fixing the same tooth again anytime soon.

Porcelain or Ceramic fillings have excellent aesthetics. It restores natural appearance of the tooth. These fillings are more resistant to staining than composites. Compare to silver fillings they offer a metal-free alternative to your filling needs. For those concerned with environmentally conscious dentistry and to limit their exposure to metal toxins, then ceramic fillings are a viable alternative to filling your cavities.

Again comparing to metal fillings Ceramic fillings is generally much more resilient and less susceptible to their metal counterparts. The porcelain material commonly used in ceramic fillings can last more than 15 years and, additionally, are typically much stronger then the silver used in metal fillings, consequently providing greater protection from the filling breaking and the need to have then repaired.

At I DENT, both options of white fillings are readily available. It’s a matter of working out 

with you which option best suits your expectations and budget

.