Tooth-Colored Fillings

Enhancements in modern dentistry materials and methods are allowing for new ways to create more satisfying, natural looking smiles. Dental research is continually developing more aesthetically enhanced materials, such as ceramic and plastic materials that imitate the appearance of natural teeth. If your smile is blemished by metal fillings, dentists now offer an increasingly common general dentistry solution through the use white tooth fillings.

More dental patients ask their dentists about white fillings because they want their teeth to look natural when they talk and smile. White fillings, or composite fillings, are made from a tooth coloured material that return the natural appearance of a decaying or previously metal filled tooth cavity. Because white fillings blend perfectly with your tooth enamel, your dentist will often recommend them if the infected tooth needs to be restored are near the front of your mouth and also for back teeth as black fillings are gradually faded out.

A white dental filling typically requires only one dental visit, during which the tooth or teeth are prepared and restored with white fillings. An advantage of white tooth fillings, as compared with other dental restorations, is that they need less of the healthy part of a tooth to be removed to hold the filling in position. This is due to the fillings composite materials being capable of bonding to the teeth adhesively.

The dentist carefully applies an adhesive followed by a number of thin layers of the natural tooth coloured material. Once the filling is in place, it is chemically hardened, or cured, for less than a minute with a special light. White fillings are ideal for patients who are sensitive to metals and are concerned about the mercury content of an amalgam filling, or who simply want to preserve their natural beautiful smile.