White Fillings

Composite Resin Filling: The Most Common Tooth-Coloured Restoration

Tooth-coloured restorations are dental materials used to restore a decayed tooth with a dental filling that matches your tooth colour to provide a dental restoration that cannot be differentiated from your natural tooth. Several types of tooth-coloured restoration help achieve that purpose:

Composite resin

The most commonly used tooth-coloured restoration, also called a white filling. Composite resin is directly applied to the tooth structure without any laboratory work. The retention of white fillings depends mainly on the bonding between the tooth and the restoration surface through a series of surface treatment steps. Unlike amalgam restoration, white fillings do not require a specific cavity design to increase retention, which helps conserve sound tooth structure.

Glass ionomer

A tooth-coloured restoration that can be used in children or adults with high caries index because of its fluoride release capability to help arrest active caries. However, due to its high solubility and low durability, it is considered an interim restoration in patients with high caries index, such as in children and radiotherapy patients. It can also be used below composite white filling as a part of the sandwich technique, to restore deep carious lesions, and to get the maximum benefit of both materials.

Why Choose White Fillings: Benefits

• Natural-looking restoration : With their availability in different shades, white fillings offer incomparable aesthetic results with a final result that cannot be differentiated from your natural tooth colour.
• Minimally invasive :White fillings retention depends on micro irregularities created through surface treatment steps without requiring the removal of healthy tooth structure to create a specific cavity design.
• Low risk for sensitivity : White fillings are insulators. They do not transfer heat fluctuation to the pulp tissues, which decreases the chances of developing tooth sensitivity.

• Dimensionally stable:Unlike metallic amalgam fillings, white fillings are not affected by the temperature fluctuations in the oral cavity during daily consumption of cold and hot food and beverages.
• Safe: White fillings are safe and biocompatible without leaching harmful materials into the oral cavity.

• Versatile: They can effectively handle many dental problems aesthetically, such as treating teeth discoloration and broken or chipped teeth.
• Can be repaired: If your white filling gets chipped, it may easily be repaired by adding new white filling increments with the same shade without needing complete restoration replacement.

Amalgam Vs. White Fillings

Amalgam is a historical dental filling material used to treat tooth decay. It offers many advantages, such as easy application, non-technique-sensitive, reasonable cost, and durability.
Its disadvantages include the unaesthetic grey colour, the necessity for removing healthy tooth structure to achieve a retentive cavity design, and the transfer of heat fluctuations to the pulp.
Also, recently, several claims have been made that link amalgam restoration to the release of mercury inside the oral cavity, which may cause health hazards.
The introduction of white fillings marked a significant advancement in restorative dentistry, addressing the drawbacks of amalgam restorations. It was also embraced by patients looking for aesthetic solutions for their teeth.

White Fillings

Cavity size: Match all cavity sizes.
Tooth preservation: Conservative cavity preparation involving decay removal and smoothing of sharp edges
Aesthetics: Naturally looking
Allergy: None recorded
Sensitivity: Does not transfer heat fluctuations to the underlying pulp tissue
Type of retention: Chemical bonding
Cost: More costly
Durability: Less durable, although current trends may last longer
Repair: Can be repaired

Amalgam Fillings

Cavity size: Not recommended in large cavities due to a lack of support and a high probability of fracture
Tooth preservation: Less conservative, requiring a specific cavity design to increase its retention, which leads to healthy tissue removal
Aesthetics: Unpleasant aesthetics
Allergy: Some people may develop an allergy related to the amalgam components
Sensitivity: Can induce teeth sensitivity as it transfers heat fluctuations to the pulp
Type of retention: Mechanical bonding depends mainly on cavity design
Cost: Less expensive
Durability: Durable
Repair: If fractured, it will need complete replacement.

Dulwich Dental Office: White Fillings Restoration Procedure

Dulwich Dental Office is a leading dental clinic in London with extensive experience in conservatively treating decayed teeth using the most recent tools and materials. Our experts always strive to fulfill our patients’ dreams and needs, especially regarding aesthetics. Dental filling is a daily practice in our clinic; we have completed countless white fillings with amazing results. To learn more about what our clients say about our dental services (click here for our clients’ testimonials). White filling teeth restoration is a simple and easy procedure. It involves the following steps:

1. 1. Caries removalAll active caries should be removed, and the cavity should be cleaned to avoid complications after teeth filling. At Dulwich Dental Office, we use the most recent tools for caries removal to avoid unnecessary sound tooth removal and pain. Air abrasion is an advanced decay removal technique used in our practice.
   2. Cavity finishingAfter decay removal, no specific cavity design is required before the application of white filling. Only sharp edge rounding is essential to avoid leaving an undermined tooth structure that can be easily broken.
   3. Shade selectionWhite filling is available in many shades. A universal shade guide is used to select the composite shade that matches your teeth’s colour.
   4. Surface treatmentThe bonding of the white filling to the tooth structure is achieved through surface treatment of the tooth structure. The first step is to create micro-roughness on the tooth surface to increase the restoration’s retention. This can be achieved through acid etching (the application of a strong acid for a limited time before washing it away) or through air abrasion. The second step is bonding, where a bonding agent is applied to the tooth structure to hold the restoration to the tooth.
   5. Composite resin application and curingWhite or composite filling is applied using a technique known as incremental packing, where the selected shade of white filling is applied and sculpted. Finally, a specific type of blue light is applied to harden the composite resin.
   6. Finishing and PolishingAs a final step, the finished restoration is polished to give it a natural look that cannot be differentiated from the tooth structure.No recovery period is required following tooth restoration using white filling. You can eat once you leave the dental clinic.

Dulwich Dental Office London Leaders in Sandwich Technique: Combination of White Fillings with Glass Ionomer

Dulwich Dental Office experts adopt the concept of not only maintaining your natural teeth as the best choice, but also keeping the tooth vital whenever possible. Deep carious lesions are a challenge for any dentist. The choice between sacrificing tooth vitality and being patient and trying new techniques to maintain vitality is difficult. We choose tooth vitality whenever possible.
In such cases, a combination of multiple restorative materials is required to gain more benefits than using a single type. Dulwich Dental Office is one of the premier dental clinics in London that uses the sandwich or layering technique to save teeth vitality in deep carious cavities.
The sandwich technique involves restoring a cavity using a combination of glass ionomer and white filling. This is valuable in deep carious lesions where active caries is approaching the pulp space.
A thin bridge of tooth structure is kept to avoid exposure of the pulp, and a layer of glass ionomer is applied. This intends to take advantage of the unique property of glass ionomer to release fluoride, which helps arrest active caries and stimulate the tooth tissue regeneration through building secondary dentine to isolate the pulp.
Above the glass ionomer layer, white filling is applied to seal the tooth crown and avoid bacterial invasion into the healing tissue. The white filling can produce an excellent seal, be dimensionally stable, and be aesthetically pleasing.
The sandwich technique is a sensitive treatment technique requiring skilled professionals and high-quality material that you can surely find at Dulwich Dental Office.

Caring for Your White Filling

• Maintain oral hygiene practices, brush twice and floss at least once daily.
• Schedule regular hygiene visits to maintain your oral health
• Avoid consuming staining food and beverages to avoid discoloration
• Avoid teeth grinding because it may lead to wear of your white filling. If you suffer from bruxism, consult our dental experts to fabricate our top-rated customised nightguards.
• Avoid using abrasive toothpaste.
• Refrain from smoking to decrease the chances of staining your white filling.