If you’ve ever felt the urge to cover your mouth when you smile, you’re not alone. Poor oral hygiene and excessive consumption of sugary or acidic foods make the perfect ingredients for dental decay to form. Dental decay eats away at your teeth for 2 to 3 years before you notice something is wrong. You may experience sensitivity when eating hot or cold foods or persistent pain in your affected tooth during this time. You may also have discolouration. A dentist can prevent further damage to your teeth and resolve a lot of your tooth sensitivity by applying cosmetic dental fillings.
Maintain Tooth Health
Your dentist may recommend dental fillings if you have a pit and fissure cavity or a more advanced stage of tooth decay. A dental filling closes the open cavity creating a smooth surface to prevent bacteria from re-entering your cavity. Left untreated, harmful bacteria settle in and multiply. These bacteria feed on sugar before converting it to harmful acids that eat through your tooth’s enamel. This acid continues to eat through your tooth until it reaches the pulp.
Advanced stage decay breaches the enamel, dentin, and pulp, leaving your tooth at risk for infection. When an infection reaches this point, your dentist may extract the infected tooth and replace it with an implant. If you don’t have it removed, it could rot and cause a painful abscess to form on your gums or under your tooth. Opting for a filling at the first sign of decay reduces these risks.
Avoid Allergens
A traditional silver amalgam filling can cause an allergic reaction in certain individuals. Symptoms of an allergic reaction to silver amalgam include sores in the gums surrounding the tooth and the inside of your cheek. Rarer symptoms include soft tissue inflammation in the gums and surrounding tissues. Although amalgam isn’t the filling of choice anymore, some dentists may recommend it due to its affordability and durability. If you’re allergic to the ingredients in amalgam, you can opt for your dentist to use a composite dental filling.
A composite dental filling (also known as composite resin) is a tooth-coloured material used in cosmetic dentistry. Dentists use a composite dental filling to seal damaged teeth and craft veneers. Composite resin has a natural look and feels, making it a desirable choice over amalgam.
Pleasing Appearance
As humans, we crave communication and often smile when meeting new people. A beautiful set of pearly whites makes a difference in how people view or interact with you. Tooth decay can affect your smile and create bad-smelling breath, which can be very off-putting. Early stages of tooth decay may go unnoticed since it often forms between the teeth or at the gum line. This decay causes white spots on your teeth, affecting your smile’s aesthetic. Later stages of tooth decay are more noticeable since they cause significant discolouration and deformation.
Unaddressed, your tooth continues to decay, leading to tooth loss, gum inflammation and misalignment of the surrounding teeth. Having your teeth filled at the first sign of tooth decay can prevent these conditions and save your smile’s aesthetic. Cosmetic fillings made of composite resin, porcelain and even gold can significantly lift the look of your smile and improve your self-esteem.
If you opt for a more natural look, your dentist may use a temporary dental filling to close your cavities. You’ll wear these until your next visit when you receive your permanent cosmetic fillings.
Good Durability
Once a dental cavity breaches your enamel, the entire structure of your tooth is at risk. Chewing down on hard foods may cause fissures to form on the affected tooth, which increases the risk of your tooth chipping or breaking open. Dental fillings are strong and made of material that’s hard, like cement, but match the colour and texture of your tooth. Composite dental filling builds back the structure of your teeth, allowing you to eat hard foods without further damaging them. The dentist will provide you with a temporary dental filling until your composite dental filling is ready.
One Single Visit
A dentist can take impressions of your teeth and have them filled in less than 20 minutes using specialized equipment. Multiple cosmetic filling sessions may take longer depending on the material used and the number of teeth needing fills. If you need multiple sessions, you’ll receive a temporary dental filling until you return for your cosmetic fillings. This temporary dental filling is less durable than your composite dental filling. To keep your tooth protected, keep your follow-up appointment.
Take Advantage of Cosmetic Fillings
As you can see, there are many benefits to having cosmetic fillings. Whether you’re looking to enhance your smile with cosmetic dental fillings made of gold or composite resin, or you’re looking to mend a problem area with porcelain, dental fillings can improve your smile and prevent further damage. Take control of your dental health today by contacting one of our skilled staff members at Mosman Fine Dental. We’ll help you find a dental filling that suits you and help you get back to smiling.
Book an appointment today.
