people beautiful smile with coffee, North Peace Dental and Implant Centre, Fort St John, BC, Canada

Cosmetic Dental Fillings (Composite Restoration)

What is a Dental Filling?

Restore the tooth back to natural appearance and function

Dental filling is a procedure to repair teeth damaged by decay, fractures, or wear. Dental fillings aim to restore the tooth's normal function, shape, and appearance, preventing further decay and maintaining long-term oral health. The process involves removing the decayed or damaged portion of the tooth and filling the cavity with a suitable material. Common filling materials include composite resin (tooth-coloured, aesthetically pleasing, slightly higher price), amalgam (highly durable, affordable, but silver dark colour and contains environmentally unfriendly metal), or gold (long-lasting, bio-compatible, highest price, but still not tooth-coloured). At North Peace Dental and Implant Centre, we provide tooth-coloured composite fillings as the primary choice for dental fillings.

Cosmetic White Dental Fillings_North Peace Dental and Implant Centre_Fort St John, BC, Canada

White Filling or Metal Filling?

The science behind dental fillings

Traditional silver fillings (amalgam) are made of a mixture of metals including silver, mercury, tin, and copper. It is highly durable, but it is not aesthetic (the filling shows a metal dark colour), and it is not environmentally friendly (mercury element in the filling is a contamination to natural environment).

White dental fillings, also known as composite fillings or tooth-coloured fillings, are a type of restoration designed to match the colour of the natural teeth. Composite fillings are aesthetic, and is environmentally friendly. In addition, Composite filling material creates a strong chemical bond directly to the tooth, which means it requires less cutting of the tooth. As Composite fillings are becoming the standard of care in modern dentistry, and are used to repair decayed, chipped, or fractured teeth. They bond directly to the tooth structure, offering good durability and support. However composite fillings are slightly more expensive, and less durable. Therefore, they are more prone to breaking and leaking, which requires a higher level of home care to keep the filling healthy.

White Dental Fillings or Metal Silver Fillings_North Peace Dental and Implant Centre_Fort St John, BC, Canada

How are White Fillings Done?

Know what to expect for your filling appointment

Dental fillings are performed in several steps: First, the dentist confirms the tooth that requires the treatment with the patient. Second, freezing (local anaesthetics) is administered to numb the area around the tooth to be worked on. Next, the dentist use a combination of tools to remove decay, the damaged tooth structure, and contaminated old filling materials to carefully engineer the tooth to be ready to receive filling materials (this step is called cavity preparation). Since the composite material is highly sensitive to moisture, the dentist will keep the area dry with lots of cottons or a “rain coat” (rubber dam). After, an acidic solution (etch) is used to wash off any residual debris to expose clean tooth surface. A bonding material is then applied as a thin layer to the tooth to seal off the tooth structure and to provide chemical bonding. The composite material is then placed to the area to shape tooth, which is then cured to set. Finally, the dentist will then shape the filling and check bite to match the natural shape and bite of the tooth, and polish the surface. Sometimes when the tooth damage area is close to the nerve, the dentist will place a layer of medicine (“pulp cap”) to provide extra protection to the nerve.

How are White Dental Fillings Done_North Peace Dental and Implant Centre_Fort St John, BC, Canada