Wouldn’t it be nice if, when you open your mouth for a good yawn or laugh, people are not given a chance to count how many fillings you have? Imagine if they just saw rows of white teeth with mounds and valleys.
It’s no good wishing you could turn back the clock and be a better tooth-brusher, but you can get rid of the grey look and replace it with white fillings. They look so real that no one will know they are not made of enamel.
Composite resin
White fillings are made from a material called composite resin. This is a mixture of plastic and glass. It has been improved upon over the years and the white fillings of today are much more robust than 20 or 30 years ago. In fact, in many ways white fillings outperform amalgam, and we’re not just talking about looks here.
Stronger teeth
When we put in a white filling here at Wimbledon Dental Care in Wimbledon, we don’t need to remove as much healthy tooth material as we do with amalgam. This means that your tooth is stronger and likely to last longer.
No gaps
If you look at a close-up picture of an amalgam filling, you can often see a little ring around the edge of it. This is a gap. No matter how tightly we pack the cavity, there’s always a tiny gap with amalgam. And any gap is a space that decay-causing bacteria can get into. With white fillings, we can bond the filling material to your tooth, so there is no gap and no chance of decay forming under the filling.
Mounds and valleys
White fillings go in as a paste but are cured and hardened with a UV light. We build them up above the surface of the tooth and then shape them to recreate the chewing surfaces we have had to remove. Amalgam is too soft to do this with. Amalgam fillings are flat and not so effective at chewing.
Next time you need a filling, whether it’s a new filling or to replace one that is failing, do ask about white fillings. We think you’ll like the difference they can make to your mouth.