Your teeth serve many purposes. Functionally they grind and chew food but aesthetically your teeth help to fill out your cheeks and are often the focal point to a first impression when you smile. When you develop cavities, pain can develop and simple tasks such as eating can be difficult. Also, cavities can present as holes or stains on the teeth preventing you from smiling with confidence. Fortunately, at Tooth Spa Sunnyvale there are simple ways to treat cavities to bring your smile to its fullest potential.
Personal Cavity Treatment
Tooth decay is a destruction of the tooth enamel. When you eat or drink foods containing sugars or starches, the bacteria in plaque produce acids that attack tooth enamel. The stickiness of the plaque keeps these acids in contact with your teeth and after many such attacks, the enamel can break down and a cavity forms. Cavities can exist without pain but often when untreated can become abscessed, leading to pronounced discomfort.
Cavities develop as a result of bacterial infiltration into a tooth’s surface. They sometimes appear as a hole which can trap food or liquids, causing infection and at times pain.
The treatment for the cavity depends largely on the size of the damaged area. Small cavities that are shallow are typically filled while larger cavities may require a root canal or crowns.
Resin Fillings
Today there are multiple options to comfortably and aesthetically restore a tooth’s structure. There are two major types of filling materials used for small to moderately sized restorations. The more traditional, outdated material is an amalgam, a silver-colored filling. The standard of care at Tooth Spa is the tooth-colored resin.
Resin fillings are also referred to as white fillings, bonding, 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.
At Tooth Spa, each filling is custom shade-matched and conservatively placed to blend in with your natural or whitened tooth color. Resin fillings provide a much more aesthetic alternative, are comparable in durability, more conservative in preparation, and are superior in bonding compared to amalgam fillings. In addition, fillings are hardened with a bright light allowing no waiting period on eating or drinking after your appointments.
Make Your Appointment Today
If you are dealing with the pain of a cavity, have questions about discolorations, feel like you may have a cavity or just want an old filling checked or refitted, call Tooth Spa to set up an appointment. Discover how easy it is to handle cavities and fillings in Sunnyvale.