Tooth Colored Fillings: Essential Facts

Mimicking the natural appearance of teeth is easy with tooth colored fillings.

Restoring or mimicking the natural appearance of a tooth has become very easy with tooth colored fillings. Fillings can be used not only to restore fractured or decayed teeth, but also to cosmetically modify their shape, size and color. Also known as white filling, this technique proves handy in closing gaps in and between teeth, fixing a chipped tooth and making teeth look straight and even.

A filling is a technique of restoring damaged teeth to its normal shape. The process of filling involves the removal of the decayed tooth, cleaning the affected part, and replacing the cavity area with a filling material. By closing the bacteria-prone cavity, filling helps prevent tooth decay. The materials used for tooth fillings are an amalgam, gold, porcelain and a composite resin or tooth colored fillings.

Facts about Tooth Colored Fillings
The 1960s saw the development of tooth-colored fillings from a composite material which was prepared with plastic resins and silica. Since then, material technology has undergone tremendous improvements in terms of durability and aesthetics. Filling were initially devised for cosmetic purposes and used to repair the front teeth. Recently, they are also used to repair the back molars that need more strength. The modern trend is to use polished fillings on the front teeth and stronger filling material on the back ones.

Tooth colored fillings are created with composite resin and are equally effective in filling cavities like silver amalgam are. The material, composite, has filler particles, bound by a matrix material. Composite resin is made by hardening a fluid mold of an acrylic, BIS-GMA around particles of glass filler. Metals such as, cobalt, gold, copper furnishes color to the glass and oxides such as zirconium and titanium contribute to the opacity.

Advantages of Tooth Colored Fillings
Apart from matching the teeth color, there are several advantages of Tooth Colored Fillings:
1.They integrate with the teeth structure chemically thus, eliminating the need for placing slots or pins.
2.They do not weaken the tooth as does silver filling.
3. They bond with the tooth and restore approximately 90% of its original strength.
4.They are temperature resistant; remain unaffected by extreme heat and cold.  
5.They are environmentally safe. There is no danger of mercury allergy or disposal of hazardous metal wastes.

Trust East Village Dental to provide the best dental care. For more information on tooth colored fillings, visit www.eastvillagedental.com.

Article Tags: Tooth Colored, Composite Resin

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