Introduction
“The tooth has a hole, I have to drill it now. Then I will make you a nice new filling! Which material would you like, I have several?
Everyone has probably heard this sentence when visiting the dentist. The prospect of someone wanting to drill around in the tooth and probably getting a syringe – for many this is associated with a lot of fear and anxiety. You are not always able to listen to what the dentist has to say about the many different materials and the respective costs for a certain material.
There are many materials that can be used to fill a hole in the tooth. Some of these materials are completely covered by the health insurance company, for some of them the patient has to pay extra. How much a filling costs depends on the material used, the size of the hole and the dentist.
Fillings that are placed directly into the tooth by the dentist are different from plastic fillings. Such plastic fillings are inlays, onlays or partial crowns. For these, the dentist takes an impression of the tooth with its hole and then a laboratory makes a perfect closure for this hole.
This piece is then inserted into the tooth by the dentist in a similar way to a crown. Dental fillings can be made of different materials. It always applies that the material must still be malleable when the dentist inserts it into the previously ground tooth. As soon as the filling material is in the hole and has been modeled into the correct shape to some extent, it must harden.
Materials for temporary fillings
If the dentist is not able to close a hole with a proper filling at an appointment for certain reasons, he still has to fill the hole in the tooth somehow. For example, if a tooth is to have a root canal treatment, it is usually not possible to have this treatment in a single appointment, but the dentist removes the nerve on the first appointment. Afterwards he puts a medication into the tooth.
The tooth is now closed with a cement filling. Only at the next appointment will the tooth receive a proper, final filling after the root canal treatment is completed. Cement as a filling does not cost the patient any extra payment.
Cement fillings are paid for in full by the health insurance company. However, the cement becomes brittle over time. It no longer forms a tight seal but allows bacteria to penetrate the tooth.
The result is caries. A tooth filling made of cement is always considered a temporary solution, especially since it is washed out by saliva over time. Plastic fillings can be considered as a temporary solution or as a final filling.
What kind of filling it will be depends on the type of plastic. Plastic fillings, which only serve to restore a tooth to the point where a crown can be made on it, are called crown preparation fillings or KVB for short. This type of filling is paid for in full by the health insurance company.
The patient does not have to pay any extra for the filling. Plastic fillings can be considered as a temporary solution as well as a final filling. What kind of filling it will be depends on the type of plastic.
Plastic fillings, which are only used to restore a tooth to the point where a crown can be made on it, are called crown preparation fillings or KVB for short. This type of filling is paid for in full by the health insurance company. The patient does not have to pay any extra for the filling.
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