Natural-looking dental fillings.
Today's composite fillings protect the teeth and the smile by eliminating metal components.
Benefits of Tooth-Coloured Fillings
The obvious advantage is that white fillings blend visually with your tooth enamel and do not stand out – they just don’t look like a filling at all. We will choose a shade of white to match to your teeth so no one will be able to even notice them.
Other advantages of tooth-coloured fillings are:
- No mercury or metals
- Less sensitivity than the silver amalgam fillings
- Greater strength due to direct bonding
- More conservative tooth structure removal
Tooth-coloured fillings are a great way to look after your teeth whilst maintaining a beautiful smile. The material used is a composite resin mimics your natural enamel in flexibility and strength, reducing the likelihood of cracked teeth. A metal filling reacts more dramatically to temperature changes that can, over time, crack your tooth.
Decades ago, metal fillings were the only option available. We believe that modern white fillings provide better results by combining both aesthetics and durability. While controversy exists around the mercury component of metal fillings, many people prefer to avoid amalgam fillings as a precautionary measure, especially when patients have metal sensitivities.
What to Expect during the Filling Process
The tooth is first cleaned of any decay or damage and all the bacteria removed. Then your dentists use an intricate set of steps that clean, desensitise and bond the white filling to your natural tooth.
When it is complete, we use a curing light to harden the material and test your bite to ensure that opposing teeth come together comfortably.
The Alternative Choices for Dental Fillings
There are a number of different alternatives that we can use for your fillings.
- Gold is an excellent material but is only chosen by some due to it being obvious.
- Composite resin: this is our recommended material for small-medium sized cavities
- Gold or porcelain inlay/onlay: These materials are best for large cavities due to their durability and strength
- Crowns: We recommend a crown when there is extreme tooth damage (more than 70 per cent of the tooth).
At Alderley Dental we use CEREC, a dental technology for creating porcelain restorations including fillings, inlays, onlays, crowns and veneers in a single visit.
If you would like to learn more about tooth-coloured fillings or any of these other options, contact Alderley Dental on (07) 3856 2144 today. We are more than happy to take you through the options, costs and what we recommend for your specific situation.
