While preserving your good oral health often means keeping up with good preventive dental care practices, like dental hygiene. It can sometimes mean more. For example, at a majority of people will experience tooth decay at some point in their lives and, as a result, have to treat the cavity that results from it. For many people, this means filling the cavity to restore the tooth and stop the decay from progressing. Today, we explain what filling a tooth cavity entails, and why it’s important to preserving your tooth’s long-term health and integrity if you develop tooth decay.
Cleaning the cavity to remove the decay
The tooth decay that causes a cavity to form is a progressive problem. Once the decay develops, it will continue to get worse, causing the cavity to grow and your tooth to lose more of its healthy, natural structure. Therefore, the first step to treating your cavity is to remove the bacteria and infected tooth structure within it to stop the tooth decay from progressing even further. After this is accomplished, the remaining healthy tooth structure will need protection and fortification, which the right tooth filling can provide after it’s been placed within the cavity.
Placing a filling that fits the cavity
After decay is removed from your tooth’s cavity, your dentist can fill the hole in your tooth with biocompatible material to address the damage done to its structure. The most effective and biocompatible solution is often composite dental resin, which consists of finely ground acrylic and quartz-like particles. Compared to more traditional metal fillings, composite resin ones offer more precise treatment by conforming more accurately to the cavity’s shape. In addition, dental composite resin is customizable, meaning your dentist can tint it to closely match the unique color and shade of your tooth. After your filling is placed, it can blend in with your tooth to make your treatment virtually undetectable to anyone else.
Protecting your tooth’s long-term health
The visible appearance of a composite resin filling, or tooth-colored filling, is an important benefit. However, the biocompatibility of composite resin often makes it the preferable solution for preserving your tooth’s long-term health. The decay that eroded its structure, and the removal of that decay, can leave the tooth structurally weaker, and the part of the tooth that decayed can be exposed to harmful oral bacteria in the future. Tooth-colored fillings are able to treat cavities more precisely and help you reduce your chances of experiencing trouble with the tooth in the future.
Learn about treating your cavity with a filling
Treating cavities is an important part of many people’s dental care, and modern tooth fillings can make it a much more convenient and discreet process. To learn more, or to schedule an appointment, call Lake Orion Family Dentistry in Lake Orion, MI, today at 248-693-6213.
