In this day and age people suffer with a lot of dental issues. This is usually due to our lifestyle choices as well as poor dental hygiene. The two factors combined are a recipe for having bad teeth! Having holes in your teeth can be cause for concern as they are painful and can lead to one problem after another. If you are looking to have dental work then look no further than Wimbledon Dental Care in Wimbledon where we have trained individuals who work in a professional manner and will be able to cater for your needs and requirements in a friendly, approachable way.

White fillings Wimbledon are also known as dental composites and are designed to fill in cavities. They are essentially tooth coloured resins and these are made up of a mixture of plastics and filling which bond with the surface of the tooth and fill the hole.

What causes people to get white fillings?

White fillings Wimbledon are a new phenomenon in comparison to the conventional silver/grey fillings that people used to get in the past. People prefer white fillings Wimbledon due to the fact that they merge with the teeth and look seamless and it is not obvious that they have a filling in their tooth. Also the material used is durable and has exceptional performance abilities and therefore is recommended by our dentists.

How long do white fillings last?

White fillings last approximately seven to ten years. This is less than silver fillings however they are still durable and are strong and a successful treatment for cavities.

What is the difference between white and silver fillings?

Whilst silver fillings may not look as attractive and aesthetically pleasing as white fillings they are considered to be strong and durable. Silver fillings are known as amalgam fillings and can withstand a lot of wear and tear and can last between 10 and 15 years.

What is the process of having fillings?

Your dentist will tell you whether or not you need fillings by doing a thorough examination of your teeth. It is therefore important that you visit the dentist regularly and keep on top of your oral hygiene to avoid needing fillings at all. If however you do require fillings then your dentist will go through the options available to you and weigh up the pros and cons of each time and then enable you to make an informed decision on which fillings you wish to go for.

Aftercare

Once you have had the filling the dentist will tell you to take care for the first week or so whilst the filling has time to settle and become one with the tooth. It is important to follow the instructions and guidelines that the dentist offers you as it will ensure the longevity of your fillings and will ensure that there are no complications. Also ensure that you maintain oral hygiene and continue to keep up with your appointments so that the dentist can keep an eye on the fillings for you.

White fillings Wimbledon are more popular than ever becoming a mainstay of the clinic’s workload at least when it comes to restorative care! Let’s find out more about how they are done and why?

Traditional fillings or the ones that come to mind most rapidly are silver white metal amalgam fillings. They have a very long history in dentistry but are far from the first; they themselves are actually replacements to gold fillings. This is both an attempt to have a cheaper fully functioning, more hard-wearing long lasting filing that would require significantly less maintenance.

Metal amalgam as a health risk?

There has been some controversy around silver metal amalgam but in normal temperatures and conditions (short of being inside a furnace!) amalgam fillings are stable and safe. But this has not altered many patients wanting to change them for newer resin-based fillings. Unless they are loose or decay has set in underneath them,  there is unlikely to be any medical need to disturb them. But newer resin-based fillings do look far more natural and can be blended in with the surrounding tooth in a way that has never been possible with silver amalgam. So they should be considered an aesthetic cosmetic choice rather than a medical need.

UV cured resins

What has made such realistic and hard-wearing white fillings Wimbledon possible has been the ever-growing use of UV cured resins in dentistry. They have several excellent properties both as an excellent adhesive holding traditional prosthetics in place but also as a material that can be built with itself, by curing the resin in layers to form much larger structures. These can then be sculpted with drills and buffed and polished like normal enamel into their final forms.

Resins find themselves being implemented in a wide range of restorations, from subtle chips all the way up to in situ resin crowns, where an entire compromised tooth is coated in multiple resin layers; somewhere between the two is composite fillings. So the next time you see the distinctive blue light of a UV lamp shining in somebody’s mouth at a dental surgery, you’ll know why and don’t be too surprised if in the not too distant future you find yourself making use of UV resin technologies in a dental procedure.

Thermal expansion

When it comes to prosthetics, size and shape have always been critical; too loose and a prosthetic would rattle, too tight and it would cause pain- this is true in dentistry. But people’s mouths experience a greater range of temperatures as opposed to most of their highly regulated bodies, jumping into the high 90’s with hot coffee or down into the – 5 with ice cream. This creates a change of thermal expansion; when a material that fits perfectly at body temperature wishes to expand at higher temperatures but as it is surrounded by a tooth, it simply cannot expand without applying pressure to the enamel and dentine which it is embedded in. But white fillings Wimbledon are formed of long polymers with little-to-no thermal expansion rather than silvers and golds.

Many of us spend a great deal of time trying to keep our teeth looking white by using specialised toothpaste and techniques to achieve the look we desire. Once we get that pearly white look that we require some of us may examine our teeth just to be disappointed to find there are still dark looking areas within our teeth that are caused by the tooth fillings some of us have.

Tooth filling may be necessary but can often appear unsightly when we look into our mouths, however, this can be resolved. By offering white fillings, Wimbledon, we can help those who are looking to change the look of their dark filling, which means they can finally achieve the look of perfectly white teeth they have been looking for.

The difference

The fillings we all know are made from silver amalgam, this makes them extremely hard-wearing and should mean that any fillings we have will last a lifetime. However, there are cases where the filling may have to be replaced due to further decay and damage caused by poor oral hygiene practices by a patient.

While the silver amalgam filling has been widely used by dentists over hundreds of years, they do not address the issue of wanting white teeth that some of us desire. This is where white fillings, Wimbledon can help, giving the patient that clean white look they desire for their teeth.

Made from a white composite resin these new fillings have one major advantage over the usual amalgam filling, as they maintain a natural look to the teeth once in place. These new fillings have also been proven to be just as strong and hard-wearing as the silver fillings that have been used in dental treatments for a long time. By using high-quality composite filling made by Heraeus Venus and TPH Spectra we can promise our patients a solution that meets their needs that is strong enough to last.

Recommended usage

These fillings are best used in smaller cavities, for larger cavities we suggest that a patient considers inlays or onlays. Made from tooth-coloured porcelain and made to fit the tooth they are applied to, these inlays or onlays are a lot like having a small crown placed onto the tooth.

Inlays and onlays are considered to be durable and can withstand the stresses of use while providing the look of white teeth that any patient is looking for.

Gaining white teeth

We all desire to look our best all the times we venture outside of our homes, as we want to be seen in a positive light by others around us. For some people, the clothes they wear create the image they wish to project, for others it is the make-up they wear and then there are those who believe having the smile they desire projects the image they wish to portray. We would recommend that these are the people who may wish to investigate the advantages of white fillings, Wimbledon.

Wimbledon Dental Care provides the highest quality care alongside a welcoming, friendly approach. We always have our patient’s welfare at the heart of everything we do.