Restorations in Anterior Teeth
Sunday, January 27th, 2008If you need restorations in anterior teeth, it is possible to apply invisible or almost invisible restorations in many cases.
In case your restorations are visible, several reasons could account for it. Brown margins on restorations for example can indicate a leakage between the tooth and the restoration resulting form red wine or from tobacco, tee and coffee. The whole restoration is discolored particularly when the restorations are older. One reason therefor is that older restoration materials are not as resistant against discoloration as current materials. Moreover, brown margins on restorations could indicate a caries lesion.

Whatever the reason for the discoloration’s of the restoration is, in most cases we can eliminate the esthetic problem. Sometimes it is sufficient to simply polish the restoration. In this case polishing is better than to replace the discolored restoration, what would lead unavoidably to loss of healthy tooth material.
If the dentist has to replace the restoration and the cavity is not too extended after preparation he can replace the restoration with a new one.

Nowadays the materials your dentist is using, so called composite materials, have almost no side effects.
It is important to know, that in some cases the patient has to pay for the treatment in addition to the payments of his health insurance. For instance if the esthetic problem is more time consuming than a regular replacement of a front teeth restoration or if a special, more expensive composite material is being used. If so, the dentist will inform the patient before beginning of the treatment.

Prior to cavity preparation the appropriate shade of the teeth will be determined. Therefore the teeth have to be cleaned and to be polished with a prophylaxis paste in order to remove any discoloration’s from natural tooth. The best treatment to clean the teeth before the tooth restoration is a professional tooth cleaning performed by a dental hygienist. Your new composite filling should be polished in a separate appointment a few days after the initial treatment.
The dental fragment not being available for reattachment, a widely tested treatment alternative is the restoration of fractured anterior teeth using composite resin. The technique allows the recovery of aesthetics and function of most fractured anterior teeth. This kind of esthetic restoration will prevent the tooth from new damage and will stay invisible over several years.