Getting diagnosed with a dental cavity is never fun. Fortunately, once you know there is a problem, the dentist can set forth to protecting your tooth and restoring your overall oral health, which is essential to preventing painful infections and even tooth loss. Fillings are one of the common ways dentists help protect teeth after cavities, and there are a number of benefits of modern fillings, so there is no reason to fear restorative dentistry.
How Is a Filling Placed, and What Makes Modern Fillings Special?
Once you know you have a cavity, your dentist can set to restoring your smile. After carefully determining how extensive the damage done by your cavity is, and then thoroughly cleaning the area, a filling can then be placed, to help protect the tooth from further decay. Fillings also help prevent the possibility of an infection developing, which would then require far more extensive restorative measures.
While fillings were once made predominantly from metal amalgam, now many dentists prefer to offer their patients composite resin fillings, which provide a number of unique benefits. Perhaps most noticeably, resin filings are more natural-looking than metal. That is because the resin can be made to match a patient’s natural teeth’s shading, and even sculpted to resemble their natural shape.
Another benefit of using resin is that it conducts less heat than metal, making it more comfortable for many patients, particularly when trying to enjoy hot foods or beverages.
Resin also bonds well with the teeth and takes up less space than metal, making it possible to preserve more of the healthy tooth than when a metal filling is used.
