Restorations (fillings)
A filling is a material that your dentist uses to fill a cavity after he or she removes any tooth decay. To fill a tooth, your dentist will numb your teeth, gums, and surrounding areas. The dentist will then remove the decay and replace it with a filling. Fillings can be made from many types of material. The dentist will talk to you about which type is best for you.
Composite Restoration
Composite dental bonding is one of the simplest and most conservative ways of masking minor imperfections in your smile, including cracks, chips, gaps, and discoloration. We perform composite bonding by coating the affected area with tooth-colored resin or plastic. This material is then bonded to the tooth by activation with a high-intensity light. The resulting restoration looks and functions just like natural tooth enamel and can be carefully sculpted to lengthen a tooth, fill in a chip or widen a tooth to mask a gap. This material can also be used for conventional fillings.
Amalgam Replacements
Although our practice offers composite resin tooth colored filling for most new fillings that you may need, the removal and the replacement of amalgam for esthetic needs alone, (the mercury based substance used for dental fillings), is highly controversial. Most dental professionals assert that the procedure is justified only in the rare group of patients who are allergic to mercury. Amalgam fillings can be replaced with fillings made of another material, such as plastic, gold or ceramic, but your doctor will discuss the pros and cons of undergoing such treatment. Despite concerns about the safety of amalgam, the material remains the most popular substance used for fillings and has been succesfully used for many years.
Repair Broken or Cracked Teeth
Inlays,onlays and crowns are often used to restore areas of a tooth that are broken or cracked. These restorations are crafted in the dental lab from either composite, gold, or ceramic material and are permanently cemented to the tooth during a follow-up visit. Inlays fill cavities within the tooth, onlays restore a broken tooth to provide added support in a particular area of the teeth whereas a crown supports and restores a tooth when the majority of natural tooth structure is missing. These dental restorations can last for many years with proper care.