You, too, can avoid losing your teeth to decay and rot. Through early detection and immediate treatment of dental caries, your dentist doesn’t have to resort to dental extraction to end the pain. An extraction presents the additional cosmetic problem of fixing your smile; truthfully, a lost tooth is unsightly to behold. Thus, the solution in this case is to clean out the affected teeth and insert white fillings into the cavities to prevent bacteria and tartar deposits from gathering inside these spaces.
How Dental Caries Cause Future Problems for You
Essentially, dental caries consist of tooth decay caused by bacterial infection in teeth. Caries cause cavities to form inside the teeth because the bacteria produce acids that corrode the enamel and penetrate into the dentin layer. This causes sensitivity and pain in the root where a bunch of nerves are located. When neglected or ignored, these dental caries cause an abscess to form inside the root, which could worsen. Remember: treatment for an infected jawbone is more expensive than root canal therapy.
Brushing at least twice a day and flossing at least once a day can prevent bacteria buildup, which leads to tartar deposits and gum infection. Visiting the dentist for a regular dental cleaning is also strongly recommended by dental health experts. However, when bacterial decay has already badly affected your teeth, your next best option is to have the caries removed and seal the cavities they left behind. This procedure calls for white filling to be used as sealant rather than an amalgam of silver or some plain dental cement.
Why White Fillings Are Better Than Silver, Mercury or Plain Cement
Modern technology has made traditional dental fillings unreliable and ineffective as long-term solutions to dental cavities. Silver amalgam fillings are now impractical because they’re usually left inside the tooth un-bonded, which allows them to expand slightly when exposed to heat and to contract a little when exposed to low temperature. Meanwhile, mercury fillings, as many found out, aren’t safe at all. The mercury gradually penetrates the bloodstream and poisons the individual. Dental cement, on one hand, isn’t as durable as the others because it tends to crumble after a while and its bond weakens considerably when exposed to intense heat or cold.
The only reliable choice is to use white fillings, which consist of plastic material that is soft and pliant while it’s used to mold and bond inside the tooth. It only becomes hard as rock when exposed to a concentrated light source. Unlike those materials used traditionally as fillings, this type of dental filling won’t require more than root planning and scaling to clean out the cavities of the teeth. The bonding agent used during the procedure remains stable throughout and won’t weaken the tooth’s internal structure.
