Everything wears out, and tooth-colored resin fillings are no exception. As they age, resin fillings in back teeth absorb moisture, swell, and begin to leak.

The tight seal between the filling material and the natural tooth is what protects it from further decay. When this seal is lost, the filling no longer fully protects the tooth, and cavities can develop.

When we recommend a restoration to replace your worn resin filling, we'll consider both the size of the filling and the amount of healthy tooth structure that remains. We can replace a fairly small filling with another resin filling, but you should know that it will eventually wear out and have to be replaced again.

When you bite together, your teeth are subjected to a tremendous amount of force. If you have a fairly large filling on a back tooth, this biting pressure could cause a portion of the tooth to break away. To strengthen it and protect it from future damage, we may need to place a crown on your tooth.

It takes at least two appointments to create a crown for you, because it's custom made to precisely fit your tooth. First, we'll prepare the tooth, and take an impression. Using this impression, a model of your mouth is created; your crown is fabricated on this model. You'll wear a temporary crown to cover and protect the prepared tooth while your custom crown is being fabricated.