What are dental fillings?

Dentists use fillings to treat dental cavities and repair cracked, broken or worn-down teeth. Many people prefer to have white fillings – also known as composite resins or porcelain inlays – because they’re tooth-colored and therefore less noticeable. Composite filling material also hardens as soon as the procedure is finished, so you can chew on it straight away. Another advantage of white fillings is they don’t contain mercury, which some people prefer to avoid.

Book an appointment with us for a new filling or to replace your mercury fillings with more natural-looking white fillings.

Types of Fillings

At Dental Planet, we only use white-colored, high-quality filling materials. This ensures your teeth look more natural when you laugh or smile and your fillings have a long-life span. White fillings don’t contain mercury like silver fillings do, and are ideal for creating long-term strength in filled teeth. In addition to placing new fillings, we also replace your old silver fillings with tooth-colored material.
There are a few options available, each with its own advantages.

Composite Fillings
We usually recommend composite resin fillings for front teeth. Before placing the composite filling, we first remove the decay and clean your tooth. The composite material is then gradually added to your tooth and set with a blue light. Once it’s set, we polish the filling.

Glass ionomer cement
Glass ionomer cement is a tooth-colored filling material that bonds to enamel and dentine. After we remove the decay and clean your tooth, we’ll place the filling material into the cavity and let it set. Once it’s hardened, we’ll polish the filling. Glass ionomer cement is usually used to protect teeth rather than make them strong.
White fillings aren’t always appropriate for teeth with large cavities. An alternative is porcelain restorations such as inlays or crowns. The life expectancy of a white filling can depend greatly on where it is in your mouth and how heavily your teeth come together when you bite.

At Dental Planet, our team of dental professionals can let you know what the life expectancy of your filling is.