You can brighten your smile with dental restoration by maintaining dental fillings that may have worn out. Dental restorations, or dental fillings, can make all the difference for your healthy smile as they help your teeth stay cavity-free. Keeping cavities filled will stave off tooth decay and plays a major role in preserving your natural tooth and restoring your smile.

With proper care and maintenance (brushing, flossing, and periodic dental cleanings), a dental filling can last 5 to 15 years, although the filling material used will also determine how long it will last. Types of filling material include ceramic or porcelain, composite resin, silver amalgam, cast gold and glass ionomer (which releases fluoride).

Fallen fillings – Biting down too hard on something can injure a filling, and cause the filling to come out. Also, it is possible that a filling isn’t strong enough for the tooth (such as a large cavity), or a filling may not have bonded to the tooth correctly, because saliva leaked into the cavity while it was being filled. These are all things that can cause a filling to come loose.

Cracked filling – fillings do wear down with time, and can crack or chip. It becomes problematic if you don’t have chipped or cracked fillings replaced or repaired (depending on the severity) the leakage will allow food particles and bacteria to enter the exposed space, and because you can’t clean under the filling, bacteria will release corrosive acid that leads to further decay. Because you may not be experiencing pain, you may not know it is happening. This is why regular dental checkups are important because they catch cracked or worn out fillings which you can have fixed before they become problematic.

Dental restorations will keep your smile cavity-free and bright! If you are having any problems with your dental fillings, or if it is time for your next checkup with our caring dentist, Dr. Sean Thompson, you can reach our Thompson Dental team in Laguna Niguel, CA at 949-558-0111 today!