Dental Fillings: Materials Types and After-Care
Everyone needs dental fillings to protect their teeth against cavities from tooth decay. Dental fillings become necessary for everyone with holes, and children are no exception to the rule. In reality, most patients arriving at Radford Dental are children with cavities because they lack proper oral hygiene habits and snack frequently on foods detrimental to dental health. The pediatric dentist 77584 at this facility cares for children compassionately at their dental office in Pearland.
Parents concerned about getting fillings for the children’s teeth receive information from the facility that the fillers are either single or a combination of various materials like metals, glass, plastics, and other materials helpful to fill an area of a tooth the dentist removes because of decay. Dental fillers also help fix broken or cracked teeth besides teeth worn from habits like nailbiting and teeth grinding. Therefore, if your child needs near you, it becomes beneficial for you to take them to an experienced children’s dentist located in your vicinity to have their teeth filled.
Types of Dental Fillings
Materials that help make dental fillings include gold, porcelain, silver amalgam containing mercury combined with silver, tin, zinc, copper, and tooth-colored plastic and glass materials known as composite resin fillings.
The type of dental fillings described is suitable for filling teeth in all patients, including children. However, the pediatric dentist near me ensures your child’s facial appearance does not impact when getting dental fillings for their teeth. Children usually develop cavities on their molars because they allow food particles and plaque to remain on their teeth without cleaning them appropriately. When your child needs dental fillings, the dentist requests that you consider the location and extent of the decay, the filling material you prefer in your child’s mouth, the cost of the filling material, your insurance coverage besides the dentist’s recommendation that helps determine which filling material best addresses the needs of the child.
How Long Do Dental Fillings Last?
Dental fillings are durable and last for five to 15 years, depending on the materials and the after-care regimen to keep their teeth healthy. For example, if you decide to get your child gold fillings, the filler will remain on your child’s tooth for approximately 15 years with proper care but needs at least two visits to the dental office before they can have them. Therefore, when providing dental fillings for children’s molars, dental fillings in Pearland, TX, usually recommends silver amalgam or tooth-colored composite resin fillings to give them suitable fillers for their teeth.
Silver amalgam fillings are durable and last for around 10 to 15 years, and cost comparatively fewer dollars than composite resin. However, silver fillings can withstand the higher biting pressures of the molars, unlike tooth-colored composite resin fillings.
Dentists also provide porcelain fillings for the molars in children’s teeth if you desire because they too are durable lasting for nearly 15 years but costing twice as much as other materials.
How Do Dentists Manage Children during the Filling Procedure?
Pediatric dentist Pearland, TX are qualified and trained to work exclusively with children to provide any treatment they need to maintain their dental health. However, children are usually fidgety during any medical appointment. Unless your child is accustomed to visiting dentists from an early age, they will likely express anxiety when receiving dental fillings.
During your appointment with the Pearland dentist for your child, they advise you on the type of sedation your child will receive and may even prescribe medications your child must have an hour before the appointment. So long as you follow the dentist’s instructions, rest assured your child will remain calm and composed when reaching the dental office to receive dental fillings.
While the sedatives provided by the dentist calm the child, they also receive local anesthesia in their mouth near the affected tooth before the dentist starts drilling the cavity to eliminate bacteria and debris. After cleaning the tooth and preparing it for the filling, the dentist places the filler chosen in the child’s tooth to complete the procedure in approximately one hour.
Getting your child’s tooth filled restores its functionality by preventing further damage from occurring. However, children need supervision constantly with their diet and dental hygiene regimen to ensure they don’t develop cavities over the teeth to need more fillings and compromise their dental health. Therefore the most get them to limit snacking on sugary and starchy foods and supervise their dental hygiene practices. Dental visits every six months are essential to project problems early when any treatments provided deliver the best outcomes.