How a filling from your dentists in Santa Rosa Beach, FL, can save your smile
Your tooth hurts, but do you need a filling? That’s a good question, and one that your dentist can answer. The best action you can take when you have tooth pain is to visit your dentist for x-rays and a dental examination.
The dentists at Great Florida Smiles & Orthodontics offer a wide range of dental services, including dental fillings to save your smile. They have two convenient office locations in Santa Rosa Beach and DeFuniak Springs, FL, to help you and your smile.
There are some signs and symptoms you can pay attention to which may indicate you need a filling. Pain is often the first symptom indicating you may need a filling. You may experience:
- Acute, sharp, stabbing tooth pain when you bite down or chew
- Sudden aching or throbbing tooth pain when you eat or drink hot or cold foods and beverages
- Sudden sharp tooth pain when you eat or drink sweet foods or beverages
There are also non-painful signs you may notice when you need a filling, including:
- An open hole or missing tooth structure on the surface of your tooth
- An area of brown or black stain on your tooth which doesn’t brush off
There are a few reasons why you might need a filling. One of the main causes is a cavity created by tooth decay. Painful symptoms like those listed above often accompany tooth decay, but you can still have tooth decay without pain. You may also need a filling because your old filling is breaking and leaking. You may see cracks in the filling, or a broken, crumbling margin of a filling.
If you do need a filling, modern filling materials give you a little extra benefit besides just restoring your tooth. Today’s fillings can also make your smile look better, because one of the most commonly used filling materials is composite. Composite is a unique liquid resin that can be matched to the color of your tooth and shaped to match your tooth contours. The composite is then hardened with an ultraviolet light, giving you a beautiful filling that blends with your smile.
To find out more about fillings and how tooth-colored fillings using composite can help your smile, talk with the experts. Call the dentists at Great Florida Smiles & Orthodontics in Defuniak Springs and Santa Rosa Beach, FL, today! Call (850) 622- 5888 for our Santa Rosa Beach office and (850) 892-2500 for our DeFuniak Springs office.