What Your Composite Filling Is Made Of
Your composite filling is a blend of tooth-colored resin and fine glass or ceramic particles. Unlike older silver amalgam fillings, composite bonds chemically to your tooth, which means more of your healthy enamel stays untouched and the seal against bacteria stays tight. Your filling is color-matched to the tooth around it so it disappears right into your smile — no one will know you had a cavity but you and Dr. Karamcheti.
What Your Visit Looks Like
Once the area is gently and thoroughly numbed, the decay is carefully cleared and the tooth is cleaned. A mild etching gel prepares the surface, a bonding agent lets the composite grip firmly, and then the composite goes in in small layers, each one hardened with a quick pass of a blue curing light. Dr. Karamcheti shapes and polishes the finished restoration so it feels just like your natural bite. Most fillings take 30 to 60 unhurried minutes from start to finish.
How Long Your Filling Lasts
With good home care and your regular cleanings, a well-placed composite filling usually lasts seven to fifteen years, and often longer. The lifespan depends on how big the original cavity was, where the tooth sits in your mouth, and habits like grinding and diet. When a cavity is too large for a filling to reliably hold, a porcelain inlay, onlay, or crown is often the longer- lasting choice — and you’ll hear that recommendation in plain English before anything changes.
Composite vs. Amalgam
Silver amalgam fillings served dentistry for more than a century, but they came with real trade-offs: a dark metallic look, no true bond to the tooth, and a tendency to expand and contract with temperature changes, which can eventually crack the tooth around them. Modern composite is stronger than ever, mercury-free, and lets more of your natural tooth stay intact. No amalgam fillings are placed at our Charlottesville office, and old amalgams can be comfortably replaced with tooth-colored restorations when they fail.