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thousand oaks dental filling

Dental Questions: Can I be allergic to dental crowns or fillings?

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Dental Questions: Can I be allergic to dental crowns or fillings?

thousandoaksfamilydentistry.com

While understanding all of your medical allergies is essential to providing safe care, reactions to common dental materials are rare. Over decades, the products we use were developed to avoid irritation and work well with the natural tissues in your body. Overall, any allergic response to a crown, filling or implant would be extremely unlikely. 

In the past, fillings and crown materials relied heavily on the use of metal. Mixtures of different metals called alloys allowed labs to create resilient structures that adapted well to the natural teeth. In the early years, many porcelain and metal crowns contained high amounts of nickel in their structure. Patients with nickel allergies sometimes developed irritation, itching and swelling around newly placed restorations. In modern dentistry, less irritating metals such as gold and palladium are now used in place of nickel. As a whole, metal plays a much smaller role in today's practice, and thus metal allergies are not a predominant concern. 

Tooth colored materials are even less likely to cause an allergic reaction. The crowns we place are typically either made of ceramic or glass and thus have almost no allergic potential. The fillings we place at our office are also non-irritating. Composite (tooth colored) materials are placed in an "uncured" state (so that they are soft/moldable) and "cured" with a light to become rigid and durable. Once the material is cured, the chemical structure is permanently altered and unable to leak or leech compounds into the body. 

Overall, the materials used at a modern dental office are extremely safe. Our patients' health and safety is of utmost importance, beyond the need to fix a single tooth. If you would like to know more about the products we use at our office or have a question about how one of your allergies or conditions might affect dental care, please give our office a call.

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Gum Line Fillings

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Gum Line Fillings

thousandoaksfamilydentistry.com

Have you noticed notching or pitting on your teeth near the gum line? You are not alone! Decay in this area (called the "cervical" portion of the tooth) is extremely common, particularly in patients over the age of 25. While they come from a few different causes, fixing them is typically straightforward and yields great results. 

Defects in these areas are most commonly caused by a phenomenon called abfraction. Here, chronic tooth clenching and grinding causes the dental enamel to flex. As it stresses and strains, the enamel around the gum line becomes weakened and erodes away. This is not unlike how a toothpick weakens in the middle if you repeatedly bend it back and forth. The second most common cause is erosion from aggressive brushing or consumption of acidic foods and beverages. Tooth decay also often plays a role, usually secondary to abfraction or erosion after a food/bacteria trap is created. 

Repairing these defects is usually very straightforward. Often times, the tooth will only need minimal modification before a filling can be placed. We usually use more flexible materials to better prevent the filling from falling out. The result is a cosmetic restoration that blends in with your natural dental enamel. 

As with any dental procedure, there are certain circumstances that make these fillings difficult to place. Decay close to the gum line may be impossible to treat due to access and moisture problems. Additionally, deep decay always presents a risk for irritating the nerve of the tooth, thus requiring a root canal. If you think you might need a filling near your gum line, the first step is to stop by our office for a complete dental exam. If you have any more questions about fillings, materials or what causes tooth decay, please give us a call!

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Do you need to get numb for every filling?

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Do you need to get numb for every filling?

If you've had a dental filling placed recently, chances are you had to get numb before the procedure began. Local anesthetics, like lidocaine and septocaine, make modern dentistry relatively painless and easy for the patient. However, there is a chance you got to skip the shot for your most recent filling. Why didn't you need to get numb? Was there really a cavity there? Read on to find out. 

Inside of every tooth is a nerve chamber that transmits sensations of pain, cold and vibration to the brain. This, coupled with the pressure sensors in the tooth ligament, give you input on the current status (and any potential harm) of the tooth. The sensation of pain is largely dependent on input from cells called odontoblasts relaying information to the dental nerve. Odontoblasts live within the inner dentin layer of the teeth, with long arms that extend to the interface between the dentin and enamel. Enamel, by contrast, is 95% mineral and contains no cells. If your filling is limited to enamel, there is no biological mechanism to transmit pain directly to the tooth nerve. Thus, there is no absolute need to numb the tooth for these procedures. 

We perform fillings on shallow areas of decayed enamel to prevent them from getting deeper. Once the bacteria pass from enamel to dentin, their growth spreads exponentially due to the higher concentration of organic matter. If we can remove and stop the decay while it is limited to enamel, there is no need for anesthesia and a much lower risk of post-operative complications. 

Other reasons for not needing injections during fillings include working on teeth with root canals or dead nerve tissue. Without a living nerve to transmit pain information, the is usually little benefit from providing the anesthesia. If you would like to now more about dental filings, how they are performed and why we place them, please give our office a call!

 

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