When you get a filling, what's the process?!
Question: What does it accomplish? Does it prevent tooth decay or what?
Answers: What does it accomplish? Does it prevent tooth decay or what?
Firstly, fillings are only necessary if you already HAVE tooth decay. They don't prevent it, they are the treatment for it. Basically, if you have a cavity in your tooth (an area which has decayed), you need to get a filling done to stop the decay spreading any further.
When you're actually getting a filling, you get an injection in the gum next to the tooth which makes it go numb. The injection stings a bit, but you won't feel any pain after that. You'll be left for about 5 or 10 minutes for the injection to work, and then the dentist will drill out the tooth and remove all the decay present - you'll feel a bit of pressure and the sound and smell aren't very nice, but it doesn't hurt. Then, once all the decay has been removed, the dentist fills the hole in the tooth with a filling, which is either amalgam (silver) or composite (white). If it's a composite filling, they use a special light to make it set, but they don't do that with amalgams. Then they'll get your to bite down on some paper a few times to check that your bite is alright and that no one particular tooth is taking too much pressure, and then that's you finished. It's not the nicest experience in the world, but I can think of worse things!
Basically the dentist takes out the material in the cavity and takes it to healthy tooth. That area is then filled in with filling material. The tooth decay is removed and hopefully stopped for that tooth, since cavities just get bigger and bigger if not stopped.