Caries Aren’t for Michigan Stadium
Caries Aren’t for Michigan Stadium
If you’re over 60, you probably remember the days of Michigan football and Bo Schembechler. The success of the game often was dictated by the number of carries the running backs had. Forward pass? Only when absolutely necessary.
While we like a great Wolverine running back as much as the next guy or gal, Dr. Egger is more concerned about carries of another sort — dental caries.
Yeah, you know them as cavities, but the actual term is dental caries. It simply means a tooth now has decay that has penetrated the enamel. It’s the most common form of oral disease known to man, dental caries. The process of getting caries is called tooth decay.
Once you have dental caries, you need Dr. Egger to remove the decayed portion of the tooth and replace it with a filling.
Types of fillings
Silver amalgam has been the main filling material for over 120 years. Here’s a little nugget for you — they’re not really silver, they’re actually mostly mercury! That is disconcerting to many people. To make them, mercury (50% of the eventual filling) is mixed with a powder comprised of silver, copper, tin, or zinc (usually a combination of some or all of those). There really isn’t any potential for harm from the mercury in your amalgam fillings. They’ve been studied by the FDA and they’ve been used since the 1800s. Still, some people don’t like the idea of being like a fish at the bottom of Lake Erie.
Composite fillings are becoming more and more popular because they’re very close to tooth color, so the filling is virtually invisible in the tooth. The resin is made of a mixture of plastic and glass. Problem is composite fillings are not as durable as amalgam and they cost more. But Dr. Egger is placing more and more composite fillings as the resin is continually improving in durability, and patients like the way they match the tooth color.
Ceramic or porcelain fillings have the admirable quality of being durable and having high aesthetic value because their color can closely match the natural color of the patient’s teeth. They are more expensive, but resist staining and aren’t easily scratched as composite resin can be. These types of fillings are usually called inlays or onlays, depending on how much of the tooth surface they replace, and are made at a dental lab according to Dr. Egger’s specifications.
Glass ionomer fillings are made of a combination of acrylic and glass. They are intended for children’s baby teeth because they only last five years and release fluoride to strengthen the surrounding natural teeth.
Do you have a tooth that has become overly sensitive? It probably has decay that is making its way inward. Call Dr. Egger at (989) 773-3560 and let’s check it out.