Introduction
In order to remove carious defects and to be able to restore the affected tooth permanently, a tooth filling is necessary. After the treating dentist has completely removed the caries and dried the resulting hole (cavity), he or she can resort to various filling materials. In dentistry, a basic distinction is made between rigid and plastic materials.
- Plastic filling materials are placed in the tooth in a deformable state, adapted to the specific tooth shape and only then hardened.
- Rigid materials, on the other hand, have to be produced in the laboratory from an impression.
Both amalgam and plastic fillings belong to the group of plastic fillings, while so-called inlays or onlays are rigid fillings. The preparation of a plastic filling can be done quickly and easily in the dental office. In cases where the carious defect reaches to the pulp, an underfilling is placed first to protect the nerve fibers.
The dentist uses a calcium hydroxide-based medication which has a calming effect on the nerve fibers and is supposed to stimulate the formation of new dentin. In the case of extensive fillings, a so-called matrix must be attached and fixed with small wedges. The tooth must then be dried out and a connection established between the natural tooth structure and the acrylic.
The dentist can then gradually introduce the filling material into the cavity. In order to prevent the material from falling out early, it is recommended to introduce small amounts of the material step by step and let it harden. Although this method takes longer to fill the entire tooth, it can usually be determined that the plastic filling can remain in the tooth longer. After the cavity is completely filled, the surface of the filling material can be adapted to the natural tooth shape.
Advantages of the plastic filling
Advantages Several factors must be weighed against each other when selecting the suitable filling material. Amalgam fillings are comparatively inexpensive, in most cases they are covered by health insurance without additional payment and withstand the chewing pressure well. However, they are quite unsightly due to their color and can only stabilize the tooth to a limited extent if the loss of substance is high.
Composite fillings (synthetic fillings), on the other hand, can be adapted to the natural tooth color and are almost invisible to the layman. Furthermore, sometimes no organ-damaging properties of the filling material are known, and the occurrence of allergic reactions or other incompatibilities is hardly ever observed. Both in durability and in resistance to chewing pressure, dental fillings made of plastic are nowadays equivalent to amalgam fillings.
Furthermore, plastic fillings have a stabilizing effect on the filled tooth in case of large substance losses. This is due to the fact that the plastic (composite) sticks to the tooth substance and thus better distributes the pressures acting on the tooth. In contrast to amalgam-filled teeth, a tooth with a plastic filling does not usually exhibit increased sensitivity to temperature.
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