Wouldn’t it be nice if, when you open your mouth for a good yawn or laugh, people are not given a chance to count how many fillings you have? Imagine if they just saw rows of white teeth with mounds and valleys.
It’s no good wishing you could turn back the clock and be a better tooth-brusher, but you can get rid of the grey look and replace it with white fillings. They look so real that no one will know they are not made of enamel.
Composite resin
White fillings are made from a material called composite resin. This is a mixture of plastic and glass. It has been improved upon over the years and the white fillings of today are much more robust than 20 or 30 years ago. In fact, in many ways white fillings outperform amalgam, and we’re not just talking about looks here.
Stronger teeth
When we put in a white filling here at Wimbledon Dental Care in Wimbledon, we don’t need to remove as much healthy tooth material as we do with amalgam. This means that your tooth is stronger and likely to last longer.
No gaps
If you look at a close-up picture of an amalgam filling, you can often see a little ring around the edge of it. This is a gap. No matter how tightly we pack the cavity, there’s always a tiny gap with amalgam. And any gap is a space that decay-causing bacteria can get into. With white fillings, we can bond the filling material to your tooth, so there is no gap and no chance of decay forming under the filling.
Mounds and valleys
White fillings go in as a paste but are cured and hardened with a UV light. We build them up above the surface of the tooth and then shape them to recreate the chewing surfaces we have had to remove. Amalgam is too soft to do this with. Amalgam fillings are flat and not so effective at chewing.
Next time you need a filling, whether it’s a new filling or to replace one that is failing, do ask about white fillings. We think you’ll like the difference they can make to your mouth.
Your mouth is your portable food processing area, and, as such, also needs to be regularly cleaned. You may not get food poisoning if you don’t clean your mouth and teeth, but any food trapped between your teeth will still rot, which can lead to infection. And you will develop other problems such as tooth decay and gum disease from a build-up of plaque.
One size does not fit all
The way we live can have quite an impact on our tooth colour. If you like drinking coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon and a glass or two of red wine with your dinner, then you can almost guarantee that your teeth will be stained. Of course, if you also smoke, your teeth will be stained. And if you have used the antibiotic Tetracycline, the colour of your teeth may also have been affected.
The urge to makeover is upon us, but there are other things that can be made over and the results won’t go out of fashion anywhere near as quick as that teal sofa suite you are tempted to buy in the sales.
Have you thought about your plans for 2019? If you are thinking about investing in how you look and your health, you could join the gym, again, and stop going after mid-February. Or you could make an investment in your teeth, both looks-and health-wise that will only take 4-9 months to complete, and is guaranteed to work.
What are fillings made of?
This may leave you wishing there was a way to turn back time, which of course there is. Teeth whitening is a great solution for whiter teeth, helping you to roll back the years and have sparkly teeth for that special occasion or just because you want to treat yourself to a smile overhaul.
Fortunately, getting straighter teeth is easy with us at Wimbledon Dental Care in Wimbledon, where we use Six Month Smiles, a great system for correcting mild to moderate alignment concerns on the front teeth.
Children start to lose their baby teeth when they are about seven, and behind them are the adult teeth, which are meant to last for the rest of their lives. It’s easy to think that baby teeth don’t matter because they are going to fall out anyway, but in fact they are very important for 2 reasons.