“What are the treatment options for cavity?”
I never had a cavity before and I'm 26 years old. There's a cavity though in one of my teeth. What are the treatment options for a cavity? Is it really just a filling?
7 Answers
A filling
Once you have a cavity, it requires a filling. You can have a silver or white filling.
1. Nothing. If it's a small lesion and not likely to grow, I would wait until next year at check time to watch it. Most of the time, it take years for a cavity to grow. There are some people that cavities grow fast in.
2. In some cases, they can be reversed using a product called icon.
3. Fill it with either white filling or silver or glass ionomer.
2. In some cases, they can be reversed using a product called icon.
3. Fill it with either white filling or silver or glass ionomer.
It depends how far the cavity has gone in the tooth. If very small, it can be watched, and use of fluoride toothpaste will help. If it's a deep cavity, you need treatment according to the location of the cavity.
There are different types of cavity very small proximal cavities, not crossing the first layer of the tooth known as enamel are sometimes reversible by fluoride treatment. However, larger cavities ranging from crossing the enamel layer to close proximation to the nerve require restoration prior to becoming a bigger problem resulting in root canal or even extraction.
Many treatment options exist for fillings, but none are as good as natural tooth structure. Direct fillings include silver amalgam and its tooth colored counterpart composite which is mostly plastic. They are easy to place making them less costly but on the average only last nine years. Indirect fillings include gold and its tooth colored counterpart ceramic. These are more difficult to place making them more costly, but can last a lifetime. Find out why this cavity happened and what you can do to prevent others from developing.
Small cavities usually treated with traditional filling procedures, larger cavities might require full coverage of tooth (crown) for strength.
