Here at our office, your dentists, Dr. Stapley and Dr. Kitchen, routinely uses dental fillings to repair small cavities and chips in the tooth enamel. While they are meant to last for a long time, no filling is impervious to the ravages of time. As the years go by, the natural bacteria living in your mouth can weaken the dental adhesive holding a filling to the surrounding enamel.
When bacteria are allowed to exploit the enamel, they could form a significant new area of decay within the tooth. In a situation like this, you might see a gray color develop in the tooth near the filling. If the filling is on the side of a tooth, it might have a noticeable change in texture.
If a filling is going bad or if it falls out, you should call our office as soon as possible to have it examined and repaired. Without timely treatment, the decay could slowly penetrate the deeper layers of the tooth, leading to more significant complications.
A small filling that falls out or goes bad can sometimes be repaired by having a small amount of enamel removed and a large filling applied to it. If a large filling is lost or a significant amount of tooth enamel has been compromised, your dentists might need to restore the tooth with a dental crown.
If you have lost a filling in Mesa, Arizona, or if you suspect one is going bad, you should call 480-830-8946 to schedule treatment at our office.