Fillings
Tooth repair of small and medium tooth defects
Before filling a tooth, the carious, soft tooth substance needs to be removed. Thereby, it is top priority to sustain as much from the healthy tooth as possible.
Apart from gentle ablation, filling the tooth with composites fulfills this goal best, because the composites may be attached adhesively on the tooth and therefore do not require a bigger mechanical retention of the tooth, like amalgam for example does.
- Direct fillings are being attached in a soft state immediately in the cleaned tooth defect and are hardened/ harden afterwards. Thereto belong:
o Composites, which consist of 80 % ceramic-like, smooth glass particles and 20% plastics. This filling has a long life-span and represents an astetic, tooth-coloured alternative for amalgam on the side teeth.
In a one layered process, these composites are part of the filling material statutory health insurances support for incisors and canine teeth defects. For side teeth composite fillings are a private service.
o Amalgam, consisting of silver, tin and copper forms an alloy with mercury. Even though the mercury content is being criticized for its possible health effects, amalgam is currently the only filling option for side teeth in the statutory health insurances’ service catalogue capable of withstanding the chewing power.
o Glass-ionomer cement and compomers are as mineral cements, respectively as combinations of composit and glass-ionomer cement not approved as fillings for bigger fillings which need to withstand the chewing power. They serve as fillings for for the neck of teeth, primary teeth, and temporary fillings.
- Indirect fillings are laboratorily made restorations „of a piece” or “of a block”, which makes them very robust and suitable to restore bigger tooth defects.
They are called inlays, if they are situated “within the tooth” or onlays, if they enclose additionally one or several humps of the teeth.
Inlays and onlays can be made from gold or ceramics. Nowadays mostly ceramic in- and onlays are used for aesthetic reasons, since they allow a restoration of the tooth as if there had never been a defect. In terms of precision of the restoration and ductility (adjustability), goldinlays or -onlays still count as high-quality tooth replacement. Since gold is less hard than ceramics, it is often perceived as more convenient when chewing.
Inlays and onlays are not included in the service catalogue of statutory health insurances. If an amalgam filling may no longer offer stability in the side teeth area, the tooth may only be crowned or partly crowned according to the service catalogue of the statutory health insurances. This usually means that more healthy tooth substance needs to be ablated than in the provisioning with an inlay / onlay.
During our opening hours we are pleased to inform you individually about the different filling materials.