Generally speaking, us Brits are pretty private people. We don’t want other people knowing all about our woes, or our health problems. We’d rather keep that kind of thing to ourselves.
But, if you have amalgam fillings, there is no hiding how many cavities you have had treated by your dentist. The evidence is there in black and white for all to see every time you throw back your head for a hearty laugh. Rows of glistening black metal blobs denounce you as being a sugar fiend in your youth, or just very bad at brushing your teeth. It’s not a good look.
The downside of amalgam
Amalgam, although deemed safe by the General Dental Council, isn’t actually all that great as a filling material. It lies flat within the tooth, which means you lose some of your chewing ability created by the valleys and bumps that molars have. Also, amalgam cannot bond with your teeth, so there is a micro-gap all around the edge of the filling, into which bacteria can sneak and cause more decay. Finally, in order to make a decent amalgam filling work, the dentist has to remove healthy tooth material. This weakens the structure of your teeth and can cause it to crumble away over the years, especially if it’s one of those back molars that take all that chewing pressure day in, day out.
Beauty aside, these are three very good reasons, why at Wimbledon Dental Care, we offer white fillings to our patients.
The difference with white fillings
White fillings are made from a porcelain composite material, which has been improved over the years and is now very durable. It is best suited for small and medium-sized fillings. Larger fillings are better treated with inlays and onlays.
When we use white fillings, we only remove the decayed material, and we fill the cavity with layers of porcelain composite, each of which is bonded to the tooth and cured with a UV lamp before the next layer is added. Once done, we can then shape the filling to recreate the mounds and valleys of your original tooth and give you back full chewing power.