Ever Wondered What is Under Your Tooth Filling?
Ever had a tooth filling replaced?
Tooth filling present in both molars. Notice the gray halo around the larger silver filling – that is tooth decay!
Many people have wondered what is under their fillings and usually don’t have the opportunity to see what their dentist is removing. If this is true for you, this blog will show you what we found below two very small silver restorations. We knew that there would be decay below the silver/mercury tooth filling on the first molar (note the dark halo surrounding the filling on the photo) but our patient wanted us to remove the silver/mercury filling that is present on the back tooth as well.
See the photos below to see what we found below these tooth fillings.
Our office would like your teeth to be as healthy as possible and certainly as healthy as you would like them to be! Oftentimes decay can be caught early enough that the treatment is much less expensive and much less invasive. Patients will often ask us to remove their old silver/mercury fillings because they want the look of white teeth. We find decay often (maybe 50% of the time) when we do this which indicates the limit of x-rays in determining decay.
Your dentist and dental hygienist should look and feel carefully around every restoration in your mouth as this is the area where tooth decay often starts! Finding problems early is another advantage of seeing your dentist regularly for examinations and cleanings! Please call our Western Colorado office at (970) 242-3635 if you have questions about tooth decay or any other dental topic.
Existing small silver/mercury tooth filling. You can also see an area of stain behind the existing tooth filling.