Tooth Filling (or) Dental Filling : In the early years of dental medicine, treatments that involved replacement materials for decayed or damaged teeth had fillings made of rigid materials. These materials had properties that would lead to further decay and even cracking of the teeth.

Dentistry has now grown to a more advanced level with a shift towards “Biomimetic” (bio = life, mimetic = mimicking) approach in the treatment process, allowing cosmetic dentists to create tooth-coloured restorations that appear more natural than before.

Tooth coloured fillings are the latest state of the art applications in LASER Dentistry. They are used for treating Bad breath, Bleeding gums, surgical removal of the gum over a partially erupted Wisdom tooth, gum surgery, treatment of sensitive teeth, Root canal germ reduction, and in treating periodontal pockets. Tooth coloured fillings of great help to the patients who are apprehensive about dental treatments, and for children, since it doesn’t involve the use of anaesthesia. It also does not include any bleeding or pain during the procedure.

The most aesthetic looking, and long-lasting alternatives to composite tooth coloured fillings are porcelain and laboratory fabricated composite inlays. Compomers or modified composite resins are not as resistant as composite resins, but they release fluoride which makes them an excellent option for areas that are highly prone to decay.

Silicate ionomer and glass ionomer tooth filling is another type of tooth coloured filling, less resistant than composite resin tooth coloured fillings, and do not last very long.