A lot of folks in Rosedale and Allandale have fillings that have been in their teeth since the 90s. Most of those are silver, and silver doesn’t last forever. Over the years it expands and contracts with every hot coffee and cold water, and eventually that pressure can crack the tooth around it. We replace old metal fillings with tooth-colored composite, ideally before the tooth gives. We’re inside The Grove at Shoal Creek. Parking’s easy, no downtown fight to deal with one tooth.
A tooth-colored resin that bonds to the tooth, ideal for swapping out an aging silver filling before it cracks the tooth.
A filling no one can see. Bonded to the tooth, matched to your shade, and finished in a single visit.
Composite goes in tooth-colored. It’s a resin. We bond it onto the tooth and a curing light sets it hard. It seals the spot and lets you chew like normal, same as the old filling did. Just without the metal. It’s the mercury-free material the FDA points patients to in place of amalgam (“silver”) fillings.
The difference shows up over time. An old amalgam filling sits in the tooth like a wedge. Heat makes it expand. Cold shrinks it back. Do that a few thousand cups of coffee in a row and the flexing wears on the walls of the tooth. Composite doesn’t wedge in. It grips the tooth, so it holds things together instead of prying at them. For a tooth that’s carried a filling since the Clinton years, that matters.
A composite filling does two things at once: it gets the aging metal out of your tooth, and it bonds the tooth back together before a failing silver filling cracks it.
This is the reason to come in. When an aging silver filling finally fails, it often takes part of the tooth with it, and then you’re looking at a crown or worse. Replacing it while the tooth is still whole keeps you in filling territory instead of crown territory.
Composite grips the enamel chemically. It reinforces what’s left of the tooth instead of sitting in it under pressure like the old metal did.
Once the gray is gone, the back teeth look like back teeth again. People are always a little surprised how much cleaner the mouth looks once the metal’s out.
Because composite bonds, we don’t have to cut a deep anchor shape the way amalgam needed. We remove the old material and the decay, and leave the healthy tooth alone.
Most fillings are placed start to finish in about an hour, with nothing to take home but a tooth that looks and works like new.
A small amount of local anesthetic keeps the tooth completely comfortable. We isolate the area so it stays clean and dry while we work.
We gently clear away the decayed tissue, the dental caries that caused the cavity, and clean the area, removing only what needs to go and preserving as much healthy tooth as possible.
The tooth is prepared with acid etching and a bonding agent, then color-matched composite resin is placed in thin layers, each cured firm with a curing light for a strong, sealed restoration.
We sculpt the filling to fit your bite, check it feels natural, and polish it to the same sheen as the enamel around it. You leave the same day.
A cavity should not cost you your smile. We treat composite fillings as cosmetic work, not just a repair. Each one is matched, bonded, and finished with the same care we give a veneer.
We match the resin to the exact shade of the teeth around it before it is placed, then polish it to the same sheen as your enamel. The result is virtually invisible, even on a front tooth.
Composite bonds directly to the tooth, so we remove only the decay and keep more of your natural structure than a metal filling ever could. No mercury, no dark line at the gum.
Most fillings are placed in about an hour, in a single appointment, with gentle local anesthetic and a comfort-first team. You walk out the same day with a tooth that works like new.
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If you’ve got silver fillings that are ten, twenty, thirty years old, it’s worth having them looked at, even if nothing hurts. The ones that fail quietly are the problem. A hairline gap at the edge lets decay back in under the filling, and you don’t feel it until it’s deep.
Come in and we’ll check the old work, every filling, for wear, leakage, and any cracks starting at the margins. If one’s on its way out, replacing it now with composite is the easy version. If they’re holding fine, we’ll tell you to leave them be. We’re not going to replace good fillings for the sake of it.
Here are the answers to the questions we hear most about composite fillings. Do not see yours? Call us. We would much rather chat than have you guess.
The ones that hurt aren’t usually the dangerous ones. It’s the old filling that’s quietly leaking or flexing the tooth that ends up cracking it. We can tell you which of yours are fine and which are living on borrowed time.
We’re careful about it. We remove the old material and any decay hiding under it, then bond the composite in. In most cases you end up with a stronger tooth than you had with the metal in there.
Most can. A very large filling, or a tooth that’s already cracked, can need a crown instead, and we’ll say so if that’s the case. But plenty of old fillings swap straight over to composite.
Five to ten years is typical, often longer on a back tooth that’s cared for. Your cleanings are when we keep an eye on it.
Usually not. Swapping one or two fillings is a single visit. People doing several often spread them across a couple of appointments so they’re not numb on both sides at once.
Most dental insurance plans cover composite fillings just like silver ones, minus your copay. We accept 100+ plans and verify coverage before treatment at any of our Central Austin studios, from South Lamar to Leander. No insurance? The Enamel Dental Plan and financing options keep cavity treatment affordable.
Our office is inside The Grove at Shoal Creek, easy from Rosedale, Allandale, Bryker Woods, Brentwood, Crestview, and Tarrytown. If you’ve carried silver fillings since the 90s, we’ll check them for wear and swap the failing ones for tooth-colored composite before one cracks a tooth. Parking’s easy, no downtown fight.
Book at The Grove →Closer to another Enamel studio? Find composite fillings at the location nearest you.
Book online or call (512) 884-5658. Parking’s easy inside The Grove, and most insurance plans help cover it.
