I won’t show the tooth completely cleaned out, but it turned out to have a very deep cavity.  However, after placing the filling, you can barely tell the tooth had any work at all.  It came out great!

Finished filling

These two teeth were in need of some help.  The one had a large, old tooth-colored filling that had begun to discolor and decay.  The tooth behind it also had a very large tooth-colored filling and was also starting to develop a cavity. You can see the margin of an old porcelain crown on the tooth behind it.

Old filling

Yes, I know it’s gross, but look how much tooth was destroyed by the existing cavity inside.  This is a photo with almost all the decay cleaned out.  And remember, there was no hot, cold, or bite sensitivity with these teeth even though they were full of bacteria-laden decay!

As I said earlier, I’ve seen many more of these ‘hidden’ cavities.  They’re tough to detect but are still really large.  Here’s another example.  This is what the tooth looked like beforehand:

Look how big these cavities were!!  They were HUGE!  And NO hot, cold, or bite sensitivity with next to nothing on the x-ray.  These are REALLY hard to diagnose!

Teeth meet glass door……….teeth lose. Glass door wins.

After almost completely cleaning both teeth, again, it is obvious they both had cavities. Now it’s time to make them look great!

Another great example of conservative dentistry that looks great when we’re finished. See these stained grooves? Think there’s any problem here? Wait and see….

Take a closer look at the final results, and where we started before the appointment. The teeth look SO much better and we really gave this patient something to smile about!!

Here’s a closer look at these two teeth. You can see the dark areas that have started around the existing tooth-colored fillings. The cavity usually will have undermined the existing filling and the tooth around it, too. So to properly repair and restore this area the entire old filling will need to be removed and replaced.