Most people will have a tooth, or a few teeth, filled during their lifetime. It is the most widely used restorative dental treatment that most practitioners, including our own Chelmsford dentists, will carry out to restore a decaying or damaged tooth. For those people who have never had one before though, or perhaps did many years ago and have bad memories of it, there may be some expectation of a painful procedure.<\/p>\n
For these people, and for general information, we are going to use today\u2019s blog to take a look at exactly what happens when you have a filling at Blue Sky Dental and why you shouldn’t be concerned.<\/p>\n
Generally, a filling will be used when tooth decay is present. These can be amalgam fillings or the more natural looking white tooth fillings that we have available at our practice. They are placed in a similar manner albeit with subtle differences which we will explain later. Where a tooth has large areas of decay or where damage is significant, a crown may be used to restore the tooth instead in order to provide additional strength to it.<\/p>\n
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In order to perform the filling procedure, a local anaesthetic will need to be applied in the form of an injection in the gum area of the affected tooth. Many people do find this a little\u00a0 unpleasant and often think that the dentist is causing discomfort when the needle enters the gum. The fact though is that this is not the case, and what you are actually feeling is the cold anaesthetic meeting the warmth of the blood in the gum. This is what causes a brief moment of discomfort but which soon goes away in a few seconds.<\/p>\n
Shortly after this, you will notice a loss of sensation around that part of the mouth and when we are sure that the area is fully numbed, we will begin the procedure.<\/p>\n
We do understand that some people find this part challenging. The sound of the drill so close to the ear can be a little concerning but it is the only efficient and quick way to remove the decaying material from the tooth in order to prepare it to be filled. There may be times when you feel that pain is just a split second away but the anaesthetic will ensure that this is not the case. You may experience vibrations and other similar sensations, but you should not feel any actual pain thanks to the anaesthetic.<\/p>\n
There is a small difference in the way that this part is carried out, depending on whether you are having an amalgam or tooth coloured filling<\/a> and we look at this in more detail now.<\/p>\n With a tooth coloured filling, we only need to remove the decayed material as the white filling will bond well to the remaining natural tooth. Where amalgam is being used, this has poorer adhesive qualities and the cavity will, instead, need to be shaped so that the amalgam filling stays in place. For this reason, in addition to aesthetic benefits, we believe that white fillings are better as more of the natural tooth can usually be retained.<\/p>\n Where the composite filling is used, it will be applied in layers and a special light will be used to harden it. Once completed, you can usually start to use the tooth as usual as the filling will be fully hardened.\u00a0 Amalgam fillings take longer however,\u00a0 and although it becomes fully stable after a short period of time, it doesn’t fully harden for 24 hours so we recommend that you avoid using that tooth for harder foods until that time.<\/p>\nThe filling<\/h3>\n
Bite check<\/h3>\n