White Filling on Molar

Here is a pretty routine filling that we do every day.   There was decay in the pit of this molar and we cleaned out the decay and placed a white Composite filling. We place fillings like this all the time.  Not only do we like the look of the filling over the old silver fillings, but we also like the process.  In most cases, silver fillings require us to drill out a lot more healthy tooth structure to place. Silver fillings don't handle pits and grooves well, and require a specific depth and width for strength. Because of this, we generally had to drill out much more healthy tooth around the decay, and often the entire biting surface's grooves.  White fillings, on the other hand don't require these same prep characteristics and work just fine with irregular shaped cavity preparations. Because of this, all we have to do is remove the decay and generally not much more.  It is so much better for the tooth when you leave more healthy tooth structure in place.   We always want to protect your tooth as much as possible, and white fillings help us do that.