Dental Fillings

A filling repairs a tooth that decay has damaged, so the cavity cannot keep growing. Some cavities announce themselves. You feel a twinge with something sweet or cold, food packs into the same spot every day, or you catch a rough edge with your tongue. Plenty of others do nothing at all. Enamel has no nerve supply, so decay in the outer layer is silent, and by the time a tooth reacts to cold the decay has often reached the dentin underneath.

That is why exams and X-rays exist. The contact points between two teeth are exactly what an X-ray is taken to see, which is why one gets taken even on a tooth that has never given you trouble. We look at the image with you on the screen, point out what we are seeing, and tell you whether it needs treating now or can be watched and measured again at your next visit. Caught early, a cavity usually means a smaller, simpler repair and more of your own tooth left in place.

Decay does not heal on its own. It is a bacterial process, and the direction of travel only goes one way.

We use tooth-colored composite resin, bonded to the tooth and shaded to match the enamel around it. Because it bonds, we can often leave more healthy tooth in place than older metal fillings required, and the finished repair is hard to spot in a smile. No dark metal.

We numb the area first, so the part people worry about feels like pressure rather than pain. Tell us if anything feels sharp, or if the numbness is slow to take hold, because we can add more. What most patients actually notice is the sound and holding their mouth open for a stretch. We remove the decayed portion, place the composite in layers, and harden each layer with a curing light. Then we shape it, polish it, and check how it meets your other teeth when you bite.

Most single fillings are done in one appointment. Wait until the numbness wears off before you eat, since a numb cheek is the usual mishap. The tooth can be tender or sensitive to cold for a few days afterwards, and that normally settles. If one tooth seems to meet first when you close, call us and we will adjust it.

A filling is not always the right repair, and we would rather tell you that at the start than halfway through. A filling needs enough sound tooth around it to hold on to. Once too much of the tooth is gone, there is nothing solid left for it to grip, and a crown becomes the honest answer instead, covering the whole tooth so it can keep working.

The sequence runs one way. A small cavity in enamel takes a filling. Decay that has reached the dentin may need a larger filling or a crown. Decay that reaches the nerve often needs root canal treatment, and a tooth with a severe or spreading infection may have to come out. That is a sequence rather than a schedule, and plenty of teeth stall somewhere in the middle for years.

It also means a tooth has limits. Every restoration is a repair of a repair, and you cannot keep adding to the same tooth forever. We will show you the image, say which of those options we would choose for your tooth and why, and tell you plainly when a filling would only buy a few months.

Fillings do not last forever. Over time they wear down, chip at an edge, or start to leak where the filling meets the tooth, and decay can begin again underneath. That is the part you cannot see, which is why an old filling gets checked at every exam rather than only when it starts to hurt.

Whether one should be replaced depends on its condition, not its age. If it is cracked, leaking, or has decay under it, we will talk through replacing it. If it is sound, we will tell you it can stay. A filling that is still doing its job is not a reason to drill a tooth again.

Worth having looked at: a filling that feels rough under your tongue, a tooth that has become sensitive around an old repair, or a dark line appearing at the edge. Under magnification we can inspect that margin properly and see what is happening there, while the answer is still a filling rather than a crown.

What a filling costs depends on the size of the cavity and which tooth it is in, since a back tooth takes more surface area to rebuild. We can check your insurance benefits first. Starting prices are on our pricing page, and your own figure is confirmed in writing at the consultation, before any work starts.

Waiting is where the money goes. Each step up that ladder is a bigger figure on your written estimate, and when a tooth sits on the line between a filling and a crown we will show you both. The time adds up the same way, one short visit now instead of several longer ones later.

Avora Dental is on State Road 436 in Altamonte Springs, and we see patients from Longwood, Winter Park, Maitland, and Casselberry. If you think you have a cavity, or a filling you have had for years is bothering you, call (407) 774-4433 or request a free consultation.