White Fillings

White fillings, or composites, are an ideal aesthetic material for front teeth where appearance is very important but where bite forces are not that high. Recent years have seen the development of many generations of white filling materials for the back (posterior teeth). The early ones were very soft and did not last and whilst the current materials available are far better and stronger than their early cousins, they still offer advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

  • They are aesthetically far more pleasing than amalgam fillings.

Disadvantages:

  • They have to be placed in a completely dry field, moisture contaminates the material.
  • They need to be placed under a rubber dam, which can be uncomfortable.
  • They require a far greater level of skill and time to place correctly.
  • This leads to a far higher cost to the patient.
  • They do not have the strength of amalgam and are not suitable for large restorations.
  • They are not suitable for patients with a hard bite or those who grind (bruxism).
  • They are prone to shrinkage, resulting in early leakage below the gum level.

Notwithstanding this, there are a lot of patients who want aesthetically pleasing restorations in their back teeth and with care and diligence, composite restorations are a viable alternative tor decayed or previously restored teeth which have a substantive amount of sound tooth structure remaining.

For those patients who have teeth with litte or no sound supporting structure or who have a heavy bite or are grinders etc., then an alternative would be to place a ceramic restoration at this tooth.