Dental Fillings
If part of a tooth has been lost through decay or damaged due to an accident, your dentist may put in a dental filling. Dental fillings are used to fill a portion of tooth or plug the hole and stop any future pain or discomfort.

Types of Dental Fillings
There are Three basic types of dental fillings:


Traditional Silver Amalgam Fillings

Silver filling is the most widely used dental material for the filling of teeth since the end of the last century. However, this material though time tested, is losing popularity due to its unacceptable cosmetic appearance.

Most of us have had amalgam fillings (silver) or gold filling restorations. Amalgam fillings are sometimes called mercury fillings as some amalgam fillings contained minute amounts of mercury.

Advantages

  1. Durability – lasts at least 10 to 15 years or more
  2. Strength – can withstand chewing forces
  3. Expense – is less expensive than composite fillings

Disadvantages

  1. Poor aesthetics – does not match the color of your natural teeth
  2. Destruction of more tooth structure – healthy parts of the tooth may need to be removed to make a space large enough to hold the amalgam filling
  3. Discoloration – amalgam fillings can create a grayish hue to the surrounding tooth structure and tend to blacken over time

Rare Allergic reactions – a small percentage of people, approximately 1%, are allergic to the mercury present in amalgam restorations.

Glass Ionomer Filling :

Glass Ionomer filling is a tooth colored filling material, which is capable of adhesion to the tooth structure as well as continuing fluoride release. Fluoride in turn prevents tooth decay. However its use is limited to certain areas and conditions depending upon various factors.

Composite Filling (Tooth Colored Filling) :

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These materials represent the latest range of cosmetic filling materials, which have a property of bonding to the tooth structure. These materials find their application in many cases like filling of the front and the back teeth, which are decayed, broken, chipped, discolored as well as in cases where there are gaps between the teeth.

The life like appearance of composite filling materials makes it difficult to distinguish between the filling and the sound tooth structure. This property in particular, makes it the most popular filling material. Composite resin dental fillings or white fillings are tooth fillings colored to look like a natural tooth.

Advantages

  1. Aesthetics – shade/color can be matched to existing teeth well suited for front teeth use
  2. Versatility in uses – in addition to use as a filling material for decay, composite fillings can also be used to repair chipped, broken or worn teeth
Tooth-sparing preparation – less tooth structure may need to be removed compared with amalgams

Disadvantages

  1. Durability – may not last as long as amalgams on average
  2. Increased treatment time – because of the process to apply the composite material
  3. Chipping – depending on location, composite materials can chip off the tooth
  4. Expense – composite fillings can cost up to twice the cost of amalgams
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