What Are Dental Fillings And How They Protect Your Teeth From Cavities?
Dental fillings are restorative materials playing a critical role in protecting your teeth to prevent further damage from a cavity. Besides saving your tooth, dental fillings also contain tooth decay progression to restore your permanently damaged tooth restoring its appearance and functionality. Therefore if the Heavenly Smiles Dentist recommends tooth filling near you, consider the suggestion as a method to prevent intensive and expensive procedures from a minor cavity that will soon assume significant proportions.
How Do Dental Cavities Occur and What Is Their Impact on Your Tooth?
Dental cavities occur when you allow tooth decay to develop in your mouth by neglecting appropriate dental hygiene practices and visiting your dentist for exams and cleanings. In addition, the occurrence of tooth decay begins when you fail to remove sticky bacterial plaque feasting on your teeth on the sugary and starchy foods you consume to create toxins allows the bacteria to erode your tooth enamel to create cavities.
Holes in your teeth impact them significantly by affecting their appearance and functionality. You encounter challenges with toothaches, eating, and performing other regular activities. Cavities damage your tooth permanently, needing restoration from the dentist in 92064 and leaving the unaddressed problem results in the decay until it reaches the center of your tooth to need the fearsome root canal treatment. Instead of allowing tooth decay to gain, don’t you think it is beneficial to have the cavity filled with strengthening the tooth and restoring its functionality? We are confident you will prefer dental fillings to root canal therapy and dental crowns.
Procedure for Filling a Cavity
The procedure for getting a cavity filling is pretty straightforward. It requires approximately 45 minutes, although you can expect numbness to last in your mouth for a couple of hours from the local anesthesia you receive. The dentist treating you is the sole professional who can help after developing a cavity.
After numbing your tooth, the dentist drills away from the decay and cleans the cavity for bacteria and debris removal to prepare it for the filling. However, after tooth decay removal, the open hole remains detrimental for your dental health because bacteria can re-infect the tooth unless it is filled using appropriate filling materials.
Types of Tooth Filling
Dentists provide different types of tooth filling materials depending on the location of the cavity, the extent of the damage, the prices of the filling materials, and your budget.
You can have tooth fillings made from silver amalgam, gold, composite resin, porcelain, and glass ionomer. However, before you decide on any filling material, it helps if you discuss it with the dentist to make an informed decision.
Metal fillings from gold or silver amalgam are appropriate for your molars with the highest biting pressures. Dentists will most likely recommend silver amalgam fillings for your back teeth as they are durable and last for 10 to 15 years with proper maintenance. You can consider gold fillings if you have the budget for them and are willing to endure multiple appointments with the dentist for having them. Silver amalgam fillings are the most affordable filling material type and are appropriate for teeth in the posterior region of your mouth.
If you have a cavity in the visible region of the mouth, the dentist recommends tooth-colored composite resin fillings to match the shade of your surrounding teeth. You can also consider porcelain fillings if you are willing to pay higher prices for them. While porcelain fillings are durable tooth-colored composite fillings, they require replacements every five to seven years. Therefore it helps if you discuss the filling material with the dentist and choose a variety suitable for your specific situation.
How Fillings Help Your Teeth?
Dental fillings lower the chances of infections by inhibiting plaque and bacteria from accumulating inside the cavities. Fillings also strengthen the tooth, preventing breaking due to trauma, cracking, or chipping. If you have an untreated cavity, you could severely undermine the health and function of your tooth. In the first place, you must make efforts to avoid cavities altogether by maintaining appropriate dental hygiene brushing your teeth two times every day, flossing them at least once, and visiting dentists for regular exams and cleanings. However, if you develop a cavity despite the measures adopted, the best option for you is to have it filled to help your tooth remain robust and functional.
Dental fillings are nothing to fear and don’t require multiple appointments with your dentist unless you prefer gold fillings or inlays & Onlays to restore the cavity. However, getting fillings is essential unless you prepare yourself for considerable expenditure on other treatments.