If your teeth have suffered damage in the form of decay or are worn out in the form of chips or cracks, you should be doing your homework on all the options that you have for tooth fillings. Here are all the fillings and the types of materials that they are available in.
Composite
These filings are also referred to as white fillings or plastic fillings. Getting these sorts of fillings depends highly on where the tooth is in your mouth that requires a filling. For instance, we tend to bite down hard on the molars that are the teeth at the back. If you get a plastic filling for molar, they may wear out fast. It is important that you discuss all options with your dentist.
To place the filling what the dentist does is cleans all the decay from the tooth and then continues to put glue or a sort of bonding material on the inside of the hole. A composite resin is put into the hole in thin layers. Every layer is hardened with the use of a special light. Once the last layer is hardened, the dentists simply carve the shape of the tooth to make it feel more natural.
Glass Lonomer
This type of material is exclusively used on teeth where you do not bite down hard. There are not that many studies around about how long this sort of filing would last. However, newer forms of such fillings are stronger and even last longer. There is research underway that evaluates the effectiveness of such materials.
The good thing about these filings is that they can easily be found or created of the same color as your original teeth have. They are full of fluoride which helps recurrent decay in the tooth.
The teeth do not have to be put layer by layer; therefore, these are simpler to put in than composite resins are. Moreover, these are direct fillings and can be done in one appointment; this is very true for most cases.
On the downside these are not as sturdy as other types of tooth colored fillings.
Porcelain
The Porcelain material fillings happen to be the most common type of dental ceramic that is used by dentists today. These are brittle and hard. Usually it is metal and porcelain which is combined to create a tooth colored crown. Dental Porcelain is created in a dental lab and unless you have a bad tooth grinding habit or some other problem, you can always make use of a combination of the two materials in your teeth.
The good news about this material is that these fillings are long lasting. On the other hand, the down side to this type of tooth colored fillings is that the procedure takes two dentists appointments to be done, and you cannot use these for teeth that you bite down hard.