Repairing Kids’ Smiles with Your Hillsboro Restorative Dentist
When it comes to helping kids keep their smiles whole and healthy, our team works in partnership with parents to keep smiles whole and healthy, but even the most attentive at-home and in-office treatment planning has gaps. That’s where dental restoration comes in. For kids, tooth decay is typically the most common oral health concern, and we are often able to repair the damage with conservative treatments like tooth-colored fillings. If your child has a toothache or has experienced some dental damage, contact us right away so we can begin the treatment process as soon as possible.
Tooth-Colored Fillings
Traditional amalgam fillings allowed dentists to restore damaged smiles with a durable, long lasting material, but amalgam fillings also have their fair share of disadvantages. The most noticeable of these disadvantages is the fact that the silver colored fillings are very noticeable standing out starkly against naturally pearly white tooth enamel. If there were only cosmetic concerns, amalgam fillings would likely still be the most popular conservative treatment option. However, amalgam fillings also have a number of other concerns associated with them. Amalgam expands and contracts with changes in temperature possibly damaging teeth over time. Additionally, the space between amalgam and natural dental structure may increase over time allowing bacteria access to the tooth causing further decay. In recent years, dentists have seen an increasing number of patients with amalgam fillings that needed to be removed and replaced due to newly decayed areas or cracks and breaks caused by expanding and contracting fillings.
Today, we typically recommend using tooth-colored, composite resin fillings as these restorations not only offer superior cosmetic results, but they also provide a more durable restoration overtime. Composite resin is applied directly to the tooth fusing tightly with the porous enamel. Once the filling material is shaped to renew the form and structure of teeth, a curing light hardens the material into place. While composite resin itself is not as durable as amalgam, the bond created between the tooth and restoration is much stronger reducing risk for breaking, cracking, or further decay compared with amalgam fillings.