Why You Should Fill Your Cavities

A cavity is a hole in the tooth where bacteria has worked its way into the tooth. After penetrating the tooth enamel, this bacteria starts to wear down the tooth itself. This can be very painful and make your tooth sensitive to hot and cold. The best way to stop the bacteria and plaque from continuing to wear down your tooth is to have the cavity filled. As your trusted dentist in Springfield, MO, it's important that you know how to handle a cavity. While we encourage proper oral care routines to avoid cavities and tooth damage in the first place, we understand that cavities do form. Learn more about how a filling can help protect your tooth from further damage below.

Fillings at Access Dental:

We use composite (tooth-colored) fillings that are light cured to match your teeth. They are a mixture of glass or quartz filler in a resin medium. They are sometimes referred to as composites or filled resins. Composite fillings provide good durability and resistance to fracture in small-to-mid size restorations that need to withstand moderate chewing pressure. Less tooth structure is removed when the dentist prepares the tooth, and this may result in a smaller filling than that of an amalgam.

Composites can also be “bonded” or adhesively held in a cavity, often allowing the dentist to make a more conservative repair to the tooth. Direct dental composites are placed by the dentist in a clinical setting. Polymerization is accomplished typically with a hand-held curing light that emits specific wavelengths keyed to the initiator and catalyst packages involved. When using a curing light, the light should be held as close to the resin surface as possible, a shield should be placed between the light tip and the operator’s eyes. Curing time should be increased for darker resin shades. Light cured resins provide denser restorations than self-cured resins because no mixing is required that might introduce air bubble porosity.

Direct dental composites can be used for filling cavity preparations, filling gaps between teeth using a shell-like veneer, minor reshaping of teeth and partial crowns on single teeth.

Cavity Prevention Tips:

Although you know who to visit if you do have a cavity, we want to give you some oral care tips to help you avoid this tooth damage and possible pain.

It's vital to your oral health that you brush for at least two minutes, twice each day. It's best to brush before bed and first thing in the morning. This can help to clean your teeth of the bacteria that naturally builds up over time. It can also be helpful to brush after each meal you eat. Food particles react with the bacteria in your mouth to wear away at your tooth enamel.

Floss at least once a day, every day. Flossing between your teeth can help to remove food particles and bacteria that gets trapped between your teeth. It's a hard to reach spot for brushing alone to reach. If you don't floss, you are missing about 40% of your tooth's surface! That's a lot of space for bacteria to form and start wearing down into your tooth, forming a cavity.

Now that you know all about the benefits of a filling and how the procedure is done at Access Dental & Dentures, you know who to call when you have a cavity. For professional and timely help with your cavity, contact our southern Missouri dental office today. We look forward to helping relieve you from the oral pain you may be experiencing due to a cavity. A quick visit and you will be on your way to a happy, healthy smile!

We want to be your dentist because your family deserves a great smile!

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Springfield Office          Rolla Office          Osage Beach Office      Mountain Grove Office
(417) 501-1048              (573) 426-5447        (573) 348-1466                       (417) 926-1160
1701 West Sunshine      416 S. Bishop Ave.  4320 Osage Beach Pkwy       921 N. Main St.

Springfield, MO 65807   Rolla, MO 65401     Osage Beach, MO. 65065       Mountain Grove