Amalgam is a hard-wearing material that has been used to repair teeth for many years, but it is far from perfect and dental technology has improved significantly. Nowadays, we can use more modern materials to restore damaged teeth and which need not contain any metal.
Restoring Teeth with Amalgam Free Fillings
If you need a filling in Bowmanville, we can restore your tooth with tooth-coloured composite resin, or when a larger filling is needed, with porcelain. We recommend porcelain because it is much stronger, restoring both structure and strength to a tooth. Usually, a larger porcelain filling, called an inlay or onlay, is needed when we restore a back tooth and where the chewing surface has a larger cavity than can be restored with composite resin.
Restoring Teeth with Biomimetic Materials
Both these materials are biomimetic, meaning they work in harmony with your natural teeth, closely replicating real tooth structure. So when our dentist prepares a cavity in Newcastle for a composite resin or porcelain filling, we only need to remove the damaged part of the tooth, leaving the healthy structure intact and preserving the maximum amount of your natural tooth. Another advantage of these modern materials is that they are virtually invisible yet are durable and hard-wearing.
Amalgam Fillings
In contrast, amalgam is not a biomimetic material, and it flexes slightly when you bite or when the temperature in your mouth changes. The continual flexing can create microfractures in teeth that, over time, can weaken them. Another issue with amalgam is that a dentist needs to remove slightly more of the healthy tooth structure when preparing a cavity for a filling so it is shaped correctly.
Amalgam is also a highly visible material that is easy to spot in the mouth. Initially, amalgam is silver-coloured, but the filling can darken over time, making it even more visible.
What If I Have Amalgam Fillings?
Many people still have amalgam fillings, and when you visit us for regular examinations, we will check their condition carefully. While amalgam fillings are long-lasting, they eventually begin to crumble and leak and must be removed and replaced.
Replacing fillings as soon as they begin to fail is essential to ensure your tooth remains protected and to prevent harmful bacteria from getting inside the tooth where they could cause further infection and decay. When the time comes, we can remove your amalgam fillings safely using a rubber dam to isolate the tooth and ensure you do not swallow any of the filling material. Our high filtration equipment ensures mercury vapour is removed from the atmosphere, protecting you and our dental team. Once the filling material is removed, we make sure it is disposed of correctly, so it cannot harm our environment.
If you have amalgam fillings that are still in reasonably good shape but would prefer to have them removed, please talk to our dentist in Clarington. We can discuss the possibility of removing them sooner and replacing them with tooth-coloured fillings.
A More Holistic Approach to Dentistry
Using biocompatible filling materials is just one way we take a more holistic approach to dentistry here at West Bowmanville Family Dental. We also prefer to provide metal-free crowns to protect teeth that require more extensive restoration. In the past, crowns often had a thin metal substructure, but we now know these restorations can be more susceptible to leakage or corrosion as they age. Metal-free crowns and bridges are also a great option for anyone concerned about metal sensitivities or allergies in Courtice.
