You do not have to be unhappy with the colour of your teeth!
Tooth whitening will result in a whiter, more youthful smile, and the confidence that it brings. Certain medication taken during childhood, trauma,teeth are sometimes naturally darker, ageing, coffee, tea and certain foods in your diet, smoking, coffee and tea all leave stains that penetrate the tooth surface, creating an older, tired smile.
Composites or white fillings are suitable for certain positions in the mouth.
Advantages:
Bonding to tooth is strong
The tooth requires minimal reduction
Can eat and use tooth immediately
Disadvantages:
Wear
Longer procedure
Higher costs
These are white fillings chemically bonded to teeth in situations when not much tooth structure is left to work on. They are not as hard wearing as other filling materials and so their application is limited. Currently research suggests a life span of 5 years for white fillings and 10-15 years for amalgam fillings.
These are tooth coloured glass ceramics that are used to completely protect the tooth and they are the longest lasting and strongest of all tooth coloured treatment options but more costly.
Amalgam fillings are an alloy made of several metals (namely silver, copper, tin and mercury) and has been used successfully for fillings for over 150 years. Evidence based research concludes there is still no direct evidence that amalgam is detrimental to your health.
However, we are placing less amalgams, not due to safety concerns, but because of the availability of alternative filling materials.
Some advantages of amalgam fillings are greater strength, Less clinic time and a lower costs than composite. Disadvantages include silver grey colour, small amount of mercury and needs 24 hours to reach maximum strength.
Gold is still one of the very best filling materials. It is more expensive than amalgam or composite fillings. Gold is still used in fillings today but most of our patients prefer tooth coloured fillings.
