Cosmetic Dentistry

Tooth Colored Fillings

There are a variety of tooth colored restorations (fillings) that are available today that restore not only the tooth's form and function but also its cosmetic (esthetic) aspect. Tooth colored fillings allow a patient to maintain or even improve the cosmetic qualities of their smile and enable them to achieve an esthetically pleasing smile that just a short time ago was unthinkable. Don't settle for nineteenth century technology that looks dark gray and contains mercury and other heavy metals when today's technology allows you to have tooth colored fillings that are almost undetectable. Tooth colored fillings not only match your natural tooth color more closely than the old silver fillings they also match your tooth's translucency, the amount of light passing through the tooth rather than reflected back off the tooth surface, than the old silver fillings. It's the translucency of tooth colored fillings or any other restoration that make them so lifelike.

Before        After

The type of tooth colored filling that your doctor will use depends on the condition of the tooth, the location of the tooth and the chewing forces on the tooth that needs to be restored. The direct tooth colored filling is done entirely in the patient's mouth. The doctor will isolate the tooth with a rubber dam, prepare the tooth with the handpiece, etch the tooth, place a bonding agent, light cure the bonding agent then place the restorative material. The tooth colored filling material can either be self-curing or light cured. The light cured tooth colored filling material is built up in small increments to form the shape and contours of your tooth and a variety of colors and translucencies can be employed to achieve the most cosmetic match possible. The self-curing tooth colored filling material is bulk placed and therefore is monochromatic and has only a single translucency. Direct tooth colored fillings are the weakest type of tooth colored fillings and should only be used in small to medium size restorations that do not involve cusps (the pointed aspect of back teeth).

If more strength and or greater cosmetic qualities are needed for the case than direct tooth colored fillings can achieve then indirect tooth colored fillings can be used to restore the tooth. These include inlays and onlays. These types of tooth colored restorations require multiple visits to your doctor's office and are fabricated in a dental laboratory. At the first visit your doctor will isolate the tooth with a rubber dam, prepare the tooth with a handpiece, take and impression of the prepared tooth and place a temporary tooth colored filling in your prepared tooth. The laboratory will make a stone model of your prepared tooth and then fabricate a customized tooth colored filling (restoration). Today there are a number of porcelains and other glass like materials that match the color, translucency, hardness and strength of natural tooth structure incredibly well and are improving all the time. At the second visit the doctor will place the laboratory-fabricated tooth colored filling (restoration) in place by either cementing it or bonding it to the prepared tooth. Your bite will be checked and any minor adjustments made so that you are as comfortable as if it was your own tooth.

Tooth colored fillings are a very large component of cosmetic dentistry today and enable the cosmetic aspect of your smile to be maintained or even enhanced while re-establishing your tooth's form and function. In no past era has the cosmetic component of someone's smile been able to be enhanced as today and incorporated into total facial makeovers that give patients the ultimate appearance they desire.