You do your best to maintain a healthy smile with your regular at-home hygiene routine that includes brushing twice every day and flossing at least once a day. And Dr. Alan Sasson and Dr. Ray Dempsey and the team at Boston Smile Center in Brookline, MA, do our best too, with the most comprehensive dental checkups. Nevertheless, there usually comes a time when we may need to repair tooth decay with a filling. For strength, durability and appearance, we use metal-free fillings to restore a tooth with a cavity.
Although the American Dental Association maintains that the mercury level in metal, or amalgam, fillings is safe, we’re not taking any chances with your health. So for fillings, we use composite resin and dental porcelain.
The Pros of Metal-free Fillings
The composite resin material that we use for fillings is matched to the color of your teeth. Amalgam fillings, on the other hand, are always dark and as such can mar the appearance of your teeth when you smile, laugh or talk. With a filling made of tooth-colored resin, you don’t need to worry about the filling showing at all.
Secondly, with a metal-free filling, our dentists can preserve more of the natural tooth structure. This is exactly the idea behind conservative dentistry—repair a tooth while preserving as much of the tooth as possible. Amalgam fillings necessitate reducing more of a tooth to accommodate the filling material. With composite resin material, a minimal amount of the tooth is removed.
Finally, for strength and protection, tooth-colored fillings made of composite resin can’t be beat. Composite fillings are bonded with adhesive to your tooth, protecting it against decay and also strengthening the tooth. Furthermore, composite fillings shield the tooth from bacteria, too. Once bonded, a composite filling won’t wear down or change shape, so bacteria and food particles cannot penetrate the tooth.
Schedule an Appointment Today
If you’d like to learn more about metal-free fillings, call Boston Smile Center in Brookline, MA. We also serve patients from Chelsea, Newton, Somerville, Boston and Cambridge.
Amalgam fillings, also commonly known as silver or metal fillings, have been used for more than 150 years. As dental technology has advanced, however, these traditional fillings have gradually been eclipsed by a preferable alternative: