If you want to upgrade your smile and make it more attractive, have you ever considered getting your old amalgam fillings replaced with tooth coloured ones?

You may not have, after all, fillings tend to be around the back teeth and are not always visible when you look in the mirror at yourself.

So, it may seem like a subtle thing to do, but getting your amalgam fillings replaced with tooth coloured composite can make a dramatic difference to how your teeth look.

You can have all your old fillings taken out and replaced in one or two appointments, or we can replace each filling as it wears out or starts to crack.

Tooth coloured fillings are made of a mixture of plastic and glass called composite resin. These fillings can be matched to the colour of your surrounding teeth so that they blend in very well.

Tooth coloured fillings, are built up in layers  and can be sculpted. Each layer that goes in is hardened, or cured, with a LED light before the next one goes in. When the cavity is filled, the dentist then polishes it smooth and sculpt in the mounds and valleys of the chewing surface, so you end up with a filling that looks just like a tooth.

As far as fashion statements go, silver fillings sound far more decorative than they actually are. For a start, they’re more a dark, shiny grey than silver, and they’re not made of silver, but of a mixture of materials called amalgam. Amalgam was the go-to method for filling cavities in the 20^th century, but it has been slowly overtaken by white fillings.

When white fillings first came in about 30 years ago, they looked great but they weren’t very strong. People often had to get them replaced quite soon after placement, especially if they were on the back teeth where all that chewing takes place.

Over the years, however, researchers have come up with much more durable composite materials (a mixture of plastic and glass) to create white fillings that are in every way superior to amalgam. Here’s why:

Stronger

White fillings are now stronger than amalgam, which also cracks and needs to be replaced about every decade.

Bonding not packing

Amalgam is a soft material that dentists pack tightly into cavities. It cannot bond with the teeth, so there is always an infinitesimal gap around the edge and, over time, it can provide an entry for decay-causing bacteria to sneak in and start eating away at healthy tooth material under the filling. Composite resin fillings are put in in layers and each layer is cured with a UV light, which bonds it to the inside of the tooth. There is no gap for bacteria to sneak in through.

A better chewing surface

Amalgam is soft and can only produce a flat surface. If you have amalgam fillings on your back teeth, you lose your chewing surface, making it that tiny bit harder to mash up your food for swallowing. White fillings are much harder and once they are in place, your dentist here at Amsel & Wilkins in Banbury can sculpt it to give you back your chewing surfaces.

Invisible fillings

Throw back your head and laugh for all you’re worth. White fillings won’t give your dental history away like amalgam does. White fillings are also great for cavities on the front teeth.

Silver fillings. They’re not truly silver, are they? They’re not made of silver, and frankly, they don’t look silver either. In your mouth, they look dark, glinty grey. They may protect your teeth, but they don’t do a whole lot for your image, and if you’ve got a lot of them, you may feel too self-conscious to laugh. There’s no hiding your past love affair with sugar when you’ve got silver fillings.

So, why not replace old silver fillings in Banbury? Why not indeed! Here are some good reasons why, because yes, there are even more than the fact that they don’t look so nice.

Teeth filled with white fillings are stronger

If you need a new filling, then have a white one, please. When we put in a silver filling we have to remove a greater amount of healthy tooth material than when we use white composite material. This means the tooth is much stronger with a white filling and more likely to withstand years of chewing.

Less chance of decay under white fillings

When we put in a white filling, we layer in the composite material, curing each layer with a special light. It bonds seamlessly to the sides of the cavity, leaving no space for decay-causing bacteria to be able to sneak in. Silver fillings are packed into the cavity, tight against the inside of the tooth, but there is no way to bond the two together, so there is always the chance for decay to happen underneath the filling.

White fillings have replica chewing surfaces

When you have white fillings, we build up the layers and when they have been hardened we can sculpt them to recreate the mounds and valley of your lost molar. We’ll get you to bite down on carbon paper every now and then as we sculpt so we can make sure your teeth bite together really well. Conversely, amalgam, which is a pretty soft material, cannot be sculpted and so you end with a tooth with a flat centre to it, which is far less efficient at grinding up your food for swallowing.