Restorations/Fillings

How is Tooth-Colored Fillings Different?

New technologies are now available to make fillings the same colour as your teeth, allowing you to continue smiling with confidence. These fillings use synthetic resins to fill the cavities, leaving your teeth looking as they originally were.

How long do fillings last?

The older metallic fillings typically last around 15 years. Tooth coloured fillings last approx 10years but in some cases can last longer.

You may experience sensitivity to hot and cold following placement of the material, however, this will subside as the tooth heals and becomes accustomed to the filling.

More Information about Fillings

Is it possible to develop a cavity under a filling?

Every filling material has some physical and chemical properties. After few years of restoration (filling), the filling materials loose these properties due to constant exposure to saliva, mastication forces etc. This leads to shrinking of the filling and creates a space between the tooth and the filling (micro leakage)allowing sewage for micro organisms.

These micro organisms form caries (secondary caries) under the filling which you cannot identify till the caries deepens and gives you sensitivity or pain, or identified by your dentist in radiography in your routine visits.

How quickly can a cavity develop?

Depends on the person’s diet and how rigid their oral hygiene routine is. If the person is constantly drinking down sodas and fermentable carbohydrates and does not brush or floss , they can go from a white spot on the tooth to a full blown excruciating abscess in under 3 months. If the person still drinks soda , but they rinse and floss and brush , it could be many years before the bacteria break through the enamel.