A Guide to Restorative Dentistry Treatments

Composite Fillings, Dental Veneers, and More.

If you have damaged a tooth in an accident or are suffering from decay, visit our Coral Gables dentist office for restorative dentistry treatments.  Dr. Mirtha Amador is an industry leader in restoring and creating beautiful smiles using a variety of solutions.  These include composite fillings, dental veneers, dental crowns, and dental bridges.  We are passionate about improving the oral health of our patients while helping them to relax and feel confident.  When you visit us for restorative dentistry, you can relax in our modern and spa-like office, knowing that you are in capable hands.

One of our most popular restorative solutions is composite fillings.  They have changed how we are able to repair teeth on a daily basis. At Gables Exceptional Dentistry in Coral Gables, FL, we have been repairing teeth and filling cavities for many years. With composite fillings, we are able to target not just the back teeth but any teeth, since the composite fillings we use look and feel exactly like natural enamel. Depending on the severity of the damage to the tooth or the amount of decay, we have any number of options when it comes to saving and repairing a tooth. The first among these is the filling procedure, which is typically the fastest and least expensive way to save a tooth. This is one of the many solutions we offer at Gables Exceptional Dentistry.  If you live in Coral Gables, FL or the 33134 area, we encourage you to call (305) 203-4132 for one of our affordable restorative dentistry procedures.

What do composite fillings look like?

Composite fillings are tooth-colored fillings, which means they blend in perfectly with the rest of the tooth and also the surrounding teeth. This is important if you do not want your restorative dentistry work to be obvious. In the past, dentists would use amalgam to repair teeth. While this was a highly effective way of repairing a tooth with a cavity, for example, the silver-colored filling was very visible and traditionally done on back teeth, where gold was a more common solution for visible front teeth. We still do provide services using amalgam if requested, but with the advent of composite fillings, there are much better options. The fillings we place at Gables Exceptional Dentistry in Coral Gables, give you a strong restoration and ability to use your teeth in the daily rigors of chewing. People often do not realize it, but when chewing, you place pressure on your teeth that ranges from moderate to severe, depending on what you are eating. If a tooth is damaged due to decay, it is important to have a filling done to strengthen and replace the lost enamel so that you do not experience discomfort when eating.

Dental Crowns and Dental Bridges

At times, a filling may not be sufficient to address the challenges faced by your teeth. Fillings, composite fillings, and amalgam fillings have limitations. The first and most important limitation is that they cannot fill a cavity that is extremely large. This is because the filling material requires enamel around it to secure it within the tooth. If the cavity is too big or if we have to remove a large amount of decayed enamel, a filling may not hold. In a case like this, there are other restorative dentistry solutions we can provide you with in our 33134 dental office, including placing dental crowns around the damaged tooth or teeth. Typically, a crown can save a damaged tooth.  However, if teeth are too far gone, it is sometimes better to just remove them and use dental bridges to replace the lost teeth.

Dental Veneers

If you damage one of your front teeth, we may recommend dental veneers. In cases like this, we can often repair a cavity with a composite fillings solution.  However, if you have cracked or chipped your front tooth, we are more likely to suggest dental veneers, an extremely effective way of dealing with front-facing damage. A veneer is a thin piece of porcelain that is bonded to the surface of your tooth to restore any damage or to improve the appearance of it.  We can use this solution to repair a tooth and close gaps, cover stains, and change the shape of it – all at the same time.  

Our Goals for Dental Restorations

Any restoration we place at Gables Exceptional Dentistry in Coral Gables, FL has to restore the appearance and functionality of your tooth.  The restorations placed in our 33134 dental office are to provide your teeth with functionality – meaning they should be able to do the work of chewing, biting, and tearing food – and aesthetics, so they look good doing it. Composite fillings, being natural in color, are an excellent way to achieve both these goals and can usually be placed in a single visit. This is because composite fillings are placed in the tooth in layers while you are in the dentist chair. We use a specialized light to harden each layer before shaping it as desired.

If there are additional improvements you need for your teeth, dental crowns or dental veneers, for example, those typically take two visits to place. With dental crowns, dental bridges, and dental veneers, they have to be made at a laboratory per our specifications and then placed in a second visit. These restorations are durable and can help to save your tooth, making the visits to our office well worth it.  To discuss these solutions further, schedule an appointment by calling (305) 203-4132.