Just because you need a filling, it doesn’t mean that the look of your smile has to change. We offer white fillings to restore your teeth and preserve your beautiful white smile. You may be advised to have a filling if you have a hole (cavity) in your tooth.
What are white fillings?
White fillings are made from dental composite combined with resins. They are called white fillings because the composite is white in colour. There are various shades of dental composite available and your dentist will match the closest shade of composite to your natural tooth for the best aesthetics.
Before white fillings became popular, most people had silver amalgam fillings, which are highly visible when you open your mouth. Amalgam fillings have served a purpose for decades and they are very strong, but white fillings are considered a safer option and are much more aesthetically pleasing.
What happens when you have a white filling?
White fillings help to make the teeth stronger and more resistant to injury without compromising the aesthetic of the smile. Before your tooth is filled, it will be numbed using local anaesthetic to ensure that you don’t feel any pain during the procedure. Your dentist will remove any decayed tissue from the cavity and clean the tooth thoroughly and then start to layer the composite inside the cavity. Often, a series of layers are used to create a more natural look. Once your dentist is happy with the filling, they will shine a curing light onto the cavity to set the composite firm. The process of setting the composite is very quick, lasting just six seconds. We will ask you to wear a set of protective glasses at this stage. Once the filling is finished, you will be able to use the tooth like any other tooth. You can eat and drink normally and you shouldn’t feel any discomfort.
A lot has been written about dental amalgam fillings over the past few years and it is difficult to ascertain what is true and what is simply scaremongering. Dental amalgam fillings are strong and durable alloy fillings, usually comprised of a mix of 46 to 57 per cent silver and 43 to 54 per cent liquid mercury. Amalgam fillings, often referred to as silver fillings, were invented in France in the 1800s and have been used all over the world to fill cavities in patients teeth. In more recent years, amalgam fillings have been replaced in many areas by composite resin fillings. These resin filings have the advantage of being tooth coloured and therefore don’t stand out as much as silver fillings.
Until the advent of composite resin fillings, or white fillings as they are more commonly known, patients had little choice but to have unseemly amalgam fillings. These amalgam fillings, invented in France in the early 1800s, had been widely used around the world to fill dental cavities. Made form an alloy of silver and mercury, these amalgam fillings, while very strong, were very noticeable in the mouth. They also expanded over time causing further damage to teeth and were notoriously difficult to fit, with dentists often having to inflict unnecessary damage on teeth to fix them. More concerning is the controversy that surrounds amalgam fillings with regards poisonous and dangerous mercury vapours that are released into the body when placed and during eating. Although this has never been resolutely confirmed it is enough of a concern to many patients to want to have them replaced.
