It’s one of those necessary evils, the dreaded trip to the dentist. Dentistry has come along way in the last 100 years and while dentists still use drills to get to the root of the problem, advances in the field have made their job much easier.
For the patient, dentistry in the modern age has allowed complete restorations of teeth and even partials which can replace lost teeth. However without the use of molds to create these new replacements dentist would have to go the old route of just pulling the tooth and forgetting about it. Gone are the old days of dentistry thanks to the use of molds and composite materials designed to create or rebuild teeth.
It’s really quite simple yet complex at the same time and probably took a lot of thought and effort to figure out how to use composites in the field.
If you’re at odds as to what exactly composites are let’s refresh some memories. Simply put, composites are the use of two or more materials that when combined create one single material. We see composite examples everywhere we look. We see them in cars, aircraft, building materials and more. It seems that composites are so popular in today’s society that you would be hard pressed to not be able to find them.
In dentistry composites are used to rebuild, fill and even create new teeth. New teeth can be made to fit a partial or serve as an implant.
The process of building these new teeth requires the use of a mold and a dental resin composite material. If you go to the dentist and they “fit” you for a procedure, a mold will be taken of your existing teeth. If there are teeth missing naturally there would be a gap on the finished mold. From there the dentist can measure how long and wide the missing tooth is and then make a new tooth or teeth from the mold. Dental resin is used to either rebuild a tooth or create a tooth filling.
While the composite materials have been used in various applications for decades, interestingly their use in dentistry is relatively new. For many who received dental fillings or restorations decades back silver mercury amalgam was used, however dentists now use synthetic resins in place of the older method.
According to studies, composite resin material seems to last just as long as the amalgam method. Additionally, resin composites are much easier to work with and are inexpensive. So, the use of resin composite materials in dentistry appears to be a much more cost effective and viable way of rebuilding teeth. The ability to bond the composite material to an existing tooth makes this form of dentistry preferable when restoring broken or decayed teeth. Resin composites also allows the dentist to create the right color match, something that couldn’t be accomplished with amalgams.
There is a lot more to know about composite use in the field of dentistry. Dentistry like other skills requiring a delicate touch is consistently being improved by the use of synthetic resins. The use of resins and ceramics in the building and restructuring of teeth has created a safer environment for both the patient and the dentist. While composites have been tried prior to the 1990′s, they were prone to breaking and were not considered as strong as mercury-silver. During the 1990′s and 2000′s improvements have made their use a more viable option. Synthetic resins are now considered to be as strong as mercury-silver amalgams and do not pose the same health risks as the older amalgams. So you see, composites do play an important role in dentistry and we are sure to see some improvements in the years ahead!