Tooth fillings in Guwahati.

Small cavities are quick to fix. Waiting is what makes them big

Decay starts in the hard outer enamel, where it causes no pain, and spreads faster once it reaches the softer dentine underneath. By the time a tooth aches, the cavity is usually large — and once decay reaches the nerve, a filling is no longer enough and the tooth needs root canal treatment.

That is why cavities found early, often on an X-ray between the teeth where they cannot be seen, are worth filling while they are still small.

Tooth-coloured fillings

A composite filling is a tooth-coloured resin, matched to the shade of your tooth, placed in layers and hardened with a blue curing light. It bonds to the tooth, so less healthy tooth usually has to be removed than for an older metal filling.

Done well, it is very hard to tell from the tooth around it — which matters most on front teeth and on the cheek side of back teeth.

When a filling is not enough: inlays and onlays

A very large filling in a back tooth can be weak and flex under chewing. When too much of a tooth is missing for a filling to last, but not so much that it needs a full crown, an inlay or onlay is the in-between.

An inlay fits inside the cusps of the tooth; an onlay also covers one or more of them. Both are made outside the mouth, in ceramic or composite, from an impression or a 3D scan, and then bonded into place. They keep more of your own tooth than a crown — and rebuilding broken-down teeth is Dr. Abeda Parveen's specialism as a prosthodontist.

Old silver fillings

A silver (amalgam) filling that is intact, with no decay around it, does not need replacing just because of its colour or age.

One that is cracked, leaking, or has decay creeping in at its edge does — and it can then be replaced with a tooth-coloured filling, an inlay or an onlay.