How do filling materials cure? | Dental filling- Which materials are available?

How do filling materials cure?

There are materials that cure by themselves, which means that they will eventually harden by themselves once they are mixed. The second possibility is curing by UV light, we speak of light-curing materials. In case of self-curing filling materials, the dentist and his assistant must hurry to finish the modeling before the material is hard.

Today’s filling materials that cure in this way are usually in a small capsule, which is clamped in a kind of shaking machine. The capsule is shaken around by this machine for about ten seconds. The capsule itself contains both powder and liquid.

Both components are separated only by a thin membrane. When the machine is shaken, this membrane tears and powder and liquid mix. The assistant takes the capsule out of the machine and clamps it in a kind of spray gun.

Now the dentist can inject the material into the tooth. The material now hardens by itself. Cements, for example, are mixed and processed in this form.

In the past, powder and liquid had to be mixed together by hand. It could easily happen that either too much powder or too much liquid was used and the filling did not have the perfect consistency. The capsules, which come directly from the manufacturer, avoid this source of error.

Amalgam also hardens by itself over time, but is not a powder-liquid mixture, but a metal-amalgam alloy. When modelling, it is important to ensure that sufficient pressure is built up during the plugging process. In contrast to the materials that harden by themselves as soon as their two components are mixed, there are also materials for dental fillings that only harden under light.

These are the so-called light-curing dental fillings. The blue light that is used for curing contains ultraviolet rays that make the light-curing material of the filling harden faster. These ultraviolet rays are completely harmless to humans, but you should not look directly into the light.

To protect the eyes, the patient either gets orange glasses or an orange shield is already attached to the polymerization lamp, which filters the blue rays. A polymerization lamp hardens the plastic in the filling. The lamp emits the special ultraviolet rays mentioned above.

Light-curing dental fillings include all plastic fillings, composite fillings and ceramic fillings. Nowadays, only these materials are used for dental fillings, as they are much easier to work with and there is no longer the possibility of making mistakes when mixing. A light-curing filling material is a little bit like children’s modelling clay.

It is delivered in capsules or syringes. The material is stuffed into the previously drilled hole and then shaped into a beautiful, tooth-like form. The newer materials for tooth filling must always be cured in layers with the polymerization lamp.

This means that the dentist plugs a little bit of filling material into the hole, smoothes it, models it and then the polymerization lamp is used and irradiates the filling material for about 40 seconds.Then this layer is hard and the next layer can be started. Because this layering technique takes some time, many dentists ask for additional payment for composite fillings.