Time was, white fillings weren’t very strong and if you were a bit of a night-time tooth grinder, your dentist in W1 may have suggested you stick to amalgam for any fillings that weren’t directly obvious. Times have changed however, and now white composite fillings are strong, maybe even stronger than amalgam, and here at Harley Street Dental Clinic, we think they’re fab.
You can have new fillings or damaged fillings replaced with white composite, or we can remove your amalgam fillings and replace them with white fillings, which are made of a mixture of plastic, glass particles and a setting ingredient. More and more people are coming to the dentist in W1 wanting their amalgam fillings replaced because they don’t like the idea of everyone being able to see that tell-tale dark glint in their mouths whenever they laugh. With white fillings, your personal dental history stays personal.
But it’s not just about having better-looking teeth, white composite fillings have some great benefits too. Let’s take a look at them:
Keep more of your tooth
When we use white composite, we don’t have to remove as much healthy tooth material along with the decay as we do with amalgam. This means you get to keep more of your tooth, and that means it is stronger and won’t crumble as easily when under pressure from chewing. This is especially important with the back teeth.
Bonding
White fillings actually bond with your tooth material, so there is a seamless join between tooth and filling. Amalgam, on the other hand, sits tightly packed inside the tooth and over time, it’s possible for decay-causing bacteria to sneak in around the edges and start to decay the tooth under the filling. This can’t happen with white fillings.
Better chewing surface
White fillings are put in in layers and each layer is cured with a UV light. Once the final layer is in and cured, the dentist in W1 uses a tool to sculpt into the shape of the tooth, giving you back the all-important mounds and valleys of the chewing surface. Amalgam can’t be sculpted. It can only sit flat inside the tooth.