Tooth-Colored Filling Restorations

At Hill Avenue Dental, we work hard to help patients keep their smiles whole and healthy, but even those patients who are the most dedicated to daily hygiene and regular professional dental care may experience minor decay or damage. When minor tooth decay or damage occurs, our Superior dentists can repair your smile with tooth-colored fillings. These conservative, natural looking dental restorations can completely repair your damaged smile, and look so flawless you’ll likely forget which tooth was damaged. Call our team if you need restorative dentistry services for any oral health concerns. We’ll examine your smile, and create a personalized restorative dentistry plan to repair your smile while preserving the greatest amount of healthy tooth structure. 

The Tooth-Colored Filling Restoration Process

Tooth-colored fillings are placed in just one day. We begin by numbing the area to be treated. Then, we remove any decayed or damaged parts of the tooth. Once the tooth is prepared, we apply an acidic material called etchant to the tooth surface. This etchant material creates a greater number of pits and grooves in the tooth surface, which gives the putty-like composite resin greater areas to bond with the damaged tooth. Next, we apply the putty-like composite resin to the surfaces of teeth where it seeps into the newly etched pits and grooves in the tooth. We shape the tooth-colored composite to recreate the lost dental structures. Then, a low heat curing light is used to harden the filling material into position, creating a strong, natural bond between the tooth and the composite filling. Finally, we smooth and polish the repaired tooth, leaving you with a flawless smile.

Amalgam VS Composite Fillings

Amalgam fillings looked unnatural, but that’s not the only reason dentists have started moving away from using amalgam fillings to repair damaged teeth. Some of the reasons we’ve switched to using tooth-colored, composite more often include:

• Conservative – amalgams are held in position by wedges carved in the healthy tooth structure, but composite filling materials seep into porous tooth structure creating a more natural fusion with the tooth
• Natural – because the composite resin seeps into the tooth structure, the connection between the tooth and filling material is stronger and less likely to break away over time like amalgam fillings
• Long lasting – amalgam fillings expand and contract at a higher rate than composite resin which can further damage the tooth or crack causing the filling to break away from the tooth over time

Direct Bonding

For patients who want to correct or conceal minor cosmetic flaws, we can use composite resin to perform a completely cosmetic procedure called direct bonding. These treatments are safe, fast and effective. In many cases, direct bonding can be an affordable, same day alternative to porcelain veneers. We simply place the malleable composite onto the surfaces of teeth to conceal staining, fill in gaps, or reshape teeth.