Natural Colored Fillings

Many patients desire a perfect smile – unfortunately, many aspects of traditional dentistry focused more on tooth health than overall aesthetics. Fortunately, modern dentistry has evolved, and modern dentists are very conscious of patients’ desires for aesthetically pleasing smiles, and will often recommend procedures that both help tooth health and benefit the patient’s appearance. One example of this is natural colored fillings.

Dental fillings are a very common dental technique used to treat cavities left after the dentist removes tooth decay. The treatment of decay typically involves two steps:

– First, the dentist uses a high-speed drill to remove any active decay or damaged tooth material to prevent decay from spreading or damaging any of the remaining teeth.
– Once the decay is removed, the dentist fills the void using a malleable material that can be shaped and molded into the cavity and formed to match the top bite surface of the tooth.

In the past, dentists would typically use metal amalgams that would last a very long time, but caused a silver shine within the mouth, making it clear that the patient had dental work done. While metal amalgam fillings can last for many years, tooth colored fillings have several cosmetic advantages for dental patients.

Tooth colored fillings match the normal shade of teeth – for this reason, fillings can be applied in areas of the smile that could be embarrassing for traditional metal fillings, such as in the front teeth / middle of the smile. Additionally, because tooth colored fillings tend to be synthetic resin rather than metal, they can be formed beyond that which can be done with metal fillings – in particular, they can be used to restore tooth shape: not only can the material fill cavities caused by decay, but a trained dentist can use the filling material to change the size and shape of teeth in order to correct flaws caused by fractured or chipped teeth or to fill minor gaps.

If you have questions about fillings, or have chipped or fractured teeth, talk to your dentist about the types of procedures that may work for you. It may be the case that tooth colored fillings can help keep your teeth healthy and enhance your smile at the same time.

Call your favorite local Greensboro cosmetic dentist, Dr. Graham E. Farless DDS, today for more information on oral health, 336-282-2868. Visit his practice online at www.gsodentist.com.