Benefits of tooth-colored dental fillings and what to expect during your treatment
If you have received a dental filling in recent years, there is a good chance that it was a tooth-colored filling made from composite resin. While silver amalgam was the material of choice for dental fillings for many years in dentistry, composite resin has become a preferred option by many patients and dentists alike. At Shadowridge Dental Group, we offer patients in San Marcos areas, tooth-colored fillings because they offer many aesthetic and oral health benefits. Read on to learn more about composite fillings and how they can benefit your smile if you have a cavity.
Advantages of using composite material
Metal amalgam was used for fillings for many decades because it was an affordable material and effective at filling a tooth after a cavity. However, modern dental advances have provided us with composite resin, a material that offers several advantages:
- Appearance: composite resin is tooth-colored, so your filling will blend in with the rest of your smile, and it will be less noticeable that you have had a filling
- Conservative: less of your natural tooth structure needs to be removed when placing a composite filling than an amalgam filling
- Less prone to breakage: metal amalgam expands and contracts at a more rapid rate than your natural teeth, which can lead to cracks and fractures when the tooth is exposed to hot or cold temperatures; conversely, the composite material has a similar expansion and contraction rate as natural teeth, making it a better option for long-lasting oral health
- Durability: Composite material bonds to the surface of the tooth better than amalgam, making it less prone to falling out over time and providing a better seal against bacteria and plaque infiltration
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