-WHAT ARE WHITE FILLINGS?
White fillings, also known as resins and composite fillings, are used to fill in a tooth after the decay has been completely removed by the dentist. They are tooth colored, meaning that they blend in with the shade of a natural tooth as opposed to silver colored fillings. The actual white filling material is made of of microscopic porcelain particles embedded in a matrix of white flexible resin. These porcelain particles represent between 60 - 80% of the total weight of a white filling, thus white fillings could more properly be known as porcelain fillings.
-IF A TOOTH WITH DECAY HURTS WITH HOT AND COLD ELEMENTS CAN A WHITE FILLING BE PLACED?
In order to answer this question, an oral examination and x-rays would be required to determine the road to take. But having this type of sensibility is not regarded as positive news. If a tooth has a deep decay that is contacting the nerve, then a root canal is the only option to eliminate the pain. The other option would be an extraction. If a tooth has a deep decay that is very close to the nerve but not in contact with it, a filling may or may not work. When a deep decay is removed and covered with a filling, pain might initiate due to the proximity between the filling and the nerve of the tooth. Sometimes a patient with constant tooth pain will insist that a tooth be filled instead of having a root canal. This is not good and we would not do this. |
