Cavity Fillings

Affordable Care For Cavities In Buena Park, CA

Cavity Fillings, Buena Park, California

We all know how important it is to brush and floss our teeth. However, it can be all too easy to fall out of practice or miss your next dental cleaning appointment. As plaque and bacteria build up, you soon start noticing your tooth becoming sensitive during mealtimes or a painful toothache developing. These are all tell-tale signs to see our dentists for a cavity. At Gold Coast Dental Buena Park, our caring dentists are right there when you need us with a friendly smile and expert dental filling.

Even in a dental emergency, our first-rate dental office ensures your time in our care is quick, painless, and stress-free. Our state-of-the-art equipment and our own dentists’ steady hands ensure you never feel a thing in the dental chair. We also use high-quality materials in all of our cavity treatments to ensure your results look and feel great while lasting years or even decades. You can count on our talented team to have your smile back to full health in no time.

Don’t wait to say goodbye to cavities! Call our dental office at (714) 278-4978 to book an appointment with us today.

What To Expect

Get your dental health back on track with an expert cavity filling!

While early tooth decay can be reversed with fluoride treatment, our dentists will need to perform a tooth filling as soon as a dental cavity develops. Fillings are relatively simple procedures. Depending on the cavity’s severity, you can be in and out of our office in 30 minutes to an hour. During this procedure, our dentists will first numb the tooth and surrounding area before removing the decayed parts of the tooth. Once all of the cavity is gone, we will fill the tooth and reinforce it with dental composite.

Traditionally, dental fillings were made using silver amalgam. However, concerns over their appearance and safety have led them to be largely replaced in the dental world. At Gold Coast Dental Buena Park, we only use composite resin for our dental fillings. This tooth colored-material can be perfectly matched to the exact shade of your tooth, so even a dentist can’t see it. The resin is applied to the tooth in layers and cured using a special UV light. Once hardened, you don’t need to wait for the material to settle like with amalgam.

Fillings are typically reserved for smaller dental cavities. With more severe cavities, your tooth may instead require an alternative tooth decay treatment, like a dental crown or root canal. Crowns are usually used with more extensive and larger cavities spanning a broad portion of the tooth. Root canals are needed once the decay reaches the tooth’s central dental pulp. With root canals, the tooth will also need either a crown or filling to keep it strong and protected from future injuries and decay.

How Bad Is Your Cavity?

Once a cavity forms, you’ll need to see our team for treatment.

Cavities don’t appear all at once. They develop and worsen through several tooth decay stages, gradually attacking your tooth and putting its life at risk. Treating your dental cavity earlier ensures we have a better chance of saving your tooth with more conservative treatments like a tooth filling rather than a crown, root canal, or even extraction.

Stage 1: Demineralization

First-stage tooth decay develops when plaque and bacteria buildup strip your tooth’s enamel of important minerals, like calcium, that keep your tooth strong. As the enamel weakens, white spots start appearing on the surface.

Stage 2: Enamel Decay

Eventually, decay weakens the tooth enough that it can break down the enamel. This is when a cavity first appears, and the damage becomes irreversible. What is a cavity? A cavity is the hole created once decay wears down the enamel and, later, the inner tooth layers.

Stage 3: Dentin Decay

When the decay breaks through the enamel, it then begins attacking the dentin layer underneath. The dentin is softer than enamel, so your cavity will start making its way through this layer faster than enamel.

Stage 4: Dental Pulp Decay

Below the dentin is the dental pulp. The pulp is the tooth’s center. It runs down the roots and contains the nerves and blood vessels keeping your tooth healthy and alive. At this stage, a painful toothache typically appears.

Stage 5: Abscess Formation

Tooth decay can infect the tooth down to the root, but it doesn’t stop there. Infection can spill from the tooth’s tip and into the surrounding gum tissues, forming a painful dental abscess. If enough of the pulp is damaged, all cavity pain may disappear and the tooth may die.

What Does A Cavity Look Like?

Please don’t hesitate to see one of our dentists if you notice these troubling cavity signs!

It’s easy to ignore dental decay when it first develops. First-stage tooth decay only shows itself as white spots or patches on the tooth’s surface, which many patients miss. However, once a cavity appears, the signs become much more obvious. The white tooth spots begin to darken into a brown or black, and the decay wears down the tooth enough to cause a physical hole. As your tooth cavity deepens, so does the pit in the tooth. However, not every cavity symptom is visible. Other tooth decay symptoms include:

persistent toothache, constant bad breath (halitosis), sensitivity to cold, hot, and sweet foods, tooth pain when biting down, white pimple on the gums, or tooth becoming numb. The earlier you spot a cavity, the better we can restore your tooth quickly and painlessly. Left untreated for too long, your cavity may no longer be treatable with a dental filling. Our team may need to perform a dental crown or root canal. If you recognize any of these warning signs, call our office at (714) 278-4978 today.

Appointment »

Dental Emergency? We’ve Got You Covered!

Just relax and let our amazing dentists take care of the rest…

When cavity pain strikes, look no further than our talented team at Gold Coast Dental Buena Park. Whether you need a dental filling, crown, or root canal, we make sure you are always relaxed and comfortable during your time in our care. With gentle hands, warm smiles, and decades of experience, our dentists can help bring our patients’ smiles back to full health, even from the brink. Count on us to be there right when you need us. Our doors are open 7 days a week, and our phones are available 24/7 so you can always call us if you need emergency care.

Schedule a Consultation »

How many cavities is normal?

Nearly everyone gets at least one cavity throughout their life. While there is no set number, most dental patients can expect to have 4 to 10 cavities in their lifetime. Some factors that can make you more vulnerable to cavities include your dental hygiene routine, frequent snacking, eating sweets and junk food, genetics, diabetes, and dry mouth.
What is the best material for dental fillings?

At Gold Coast Dental, we only use tooth-colored dental composite in our fillings. These white fillings match the rest of your tooth for a seamless appearance. Dentists traditionally used silver amalgam, but this material has largely been abandoned due to concerns for its aesthetics and mercury content.
Is it necessary to fill cavities in baby teeth?

Unless the tooth is about to fall out on its own, baby teeth should always be filled. Cavities can develop at any age, and left untreated, they can put the rest of your child’s smile at risk. Severe tooth infection can spread to the nearby gums, bone, and teeth—including your child’s waiting adult teeth. By the time the adult tooth finally erupts, it can already be severely decayed.
Does filling a cavity hurt?

No. We use a potent numbing agent before your filling procedure, so you should only feel some minor pressure as our dentists work. Even a root canal should be entirely painless.
Can a temporary filling last for years?

No. Temporary fillings are often used for large cavities and root canals that require multiple appointments, protecting the tooth between visits. As their name suggests, these fillings are not as durable as composite fillings and should only last a couple of weeks to a few months at most.
How can you prevent cavities?

Maintain an excellent dental hygiene routine. Brushing your teeth twice a day, flossing daily, and scheduling a dental cleaning every six months all keep dental plaque from building up. We also recommend using fluoride products to strengthen your teeth’s enamel and reverse tooth decay-caused demineralization.