After an examination, your dentist may recommend that a tooth needs a filling. A filling is a way to restore a damaged tooth back to its normal function and shape. Materials used for fillings include gold, porcelain, composite resins (tooth-coloured fillings), and an amalgam (an alloy of mercury, silver, copper, tin and sometimes zinc).

At Gwynne Dental we focus on both minimal-intervention and cosmetic dentistry, which means we use mainly composite “tooth coloured” fillings.

Composite Fillings

Older, “traditional” fillings were made of metal amalgam, now white composite fillings have gained increasing popularity. Our goal is always to create extremely natural results for our patients, almost undetectable from natural teeth in appearance and function.

Highly aesthetic Composite restorations are created by hand, to an extremely high level of colour matching to your own teeth. Different shades are placed in layers enabling our expert dentists to carefully match the filling to the natural colour of your tooth so that it blends in seamlessly. This is a very highly skilled discipline.

Ceramic Inlay and Onlay Restorations

Our master Dental Technician can create porcelain Inlay or Onlay restorations. These are used either when an old filling is being replaced or if a tooth cavity is very large. These bespoke restorations are bonded to your remaining tooth structure to create a virtually “invisible” join whilst preserving your natural tooth. This avoids the need for crowns and reinforces the tooth for long term survival.

The Procedure

The area is first numbed using a local anaesthetic cream. Local anaesthetic is then very gently placed next to the tooth. All the decay or old filling is carefully, gently and completely removed leaving strong, sound tooth structure. The dentist will either repair the tooth directly (composite filling) or a 3D scan is taken for the manufacture of a ceramic filling. In this latter case, a temporary will be placed until the new ceramic filling is ready for cementation at a 2nd appointment.