Dental Fillings

Reasons To Have Your Old Amalgam Fillings Replaced With Natural-Looking Composite Fillings

If your mouth is still full of those old, metallic fillings that were inserted into your teeth years ago, then you may want to consider making the switch to more natural-looking composite fillings. It's been shown in studies the average life of a metal filling is 8-15 years. If your fillings are older than 15 years, you may want to consider having them updated. Here are some great reasons to upgrade your old amalgam fillings:

1. Hidden Decay

Today, I went to the dentist to update my fillings. I need to admit, I had a horrible love with candy during my teen years, which led to having many fillings completed in my adolescent years. (Being in the dental office so much interested me in becoming one - so its not all bad!) What got me was braces, braces and candy don't mix. You can't floss very easily with braces, so I decided brushing would be enough. In college, some of these metal fillings had cracked and needed to be replaced. So in college, I had another round of metal fillings.

(For those of you who don't know what a Cerec Machine is....please see our webpage over Cere here)

Daily, I get asked from patients, if I am not having pain, why do I have to get a filling?

Like cancer and heart disease in the body, most dental problems are silent. Lets look at a few silent dental problems.

Cavities

Over the last 10-15 years, major controversy has been associated with metal (mercury) fillings. It has been banned in 5 countries within the last 10 years. The FDA has cleared the fillings as safe with a study completed in 2008. However, in 2011 the FDA plans on reopening an investigation on metals fillings safeness.

A few things come into play:

Most dental insurance companies only pay for metal fillings.