Tooth-Colored Fillings in Mill Creek By Brian Rutherford, DDS

Are your teeth filled with metal amalgam fillings? Are your teeth turning gray and discolored? Talk to me about tooth-colored fillings.

In my Mill Creek dental practice, I don’t restore cavities with anything but tooth-colored fillings. Not only are they aesthetically more appealing than metal (they virtually disappear in the tooth), they’re safer, stronger choice than metal fillings.

Like metal outside your mouth, metal fillings react to changes in temperature. They expand when exposed to heat (think coffee, tea, soup) and contract when exposed to cold (ice water, ice cream, iced tea). All this movement can cause your tooth to fracture or break. It also creates space between the filling and the tooth wall, allowing bacteria to get in and cause even more decay.

Tooth-colored fillings are made of a composite material that is biocompatible and non-reactive to temperature. They require far less tooth preparation (i.e. drilling!) to be placed, allowing much more natural tooth structure to remain intact than a metal filling does. This keeps your tooth stronger. What’s more, a white composite filling can actually strengthen your tooth by 75 percent!

If you want safer, stronger, more attractive restoration, insist on tooth-colored fillings in the future. If you would like to replace existing metal amalgam fillings with white composite fillings, I welcome you to call my Mill Creek dental practice today.