Composite Resin
The standard replacement material for amalgam is composite resin, which can be bonded to enamel, matched to your tooth colour and releases no mercury. While these properties make it, in our opinion, a superior material to amalgam, it does have some drawbacks. Composite consists of a plastic matrix with various fillers added to improve its physical characteristics. None the less, like amalgam, it has a wear rate greater than enamel. As well as wearing away faster than your teeth , it shrinks and expands at a different rate when you eat or drink food hotter or colder than the ambient temperature of the mouth, putting strains on the bond linking tooth to filling, These strains can eventually lead to breakdown of the bond resulting in  staining, sensitivity  and tooth decay. The larger the filling the more likely debonding will occur over time. Recent advances in porcelain technology have overcome these long term problems, and at Avenue Dental these alternatives are available.

Glass Ionomer
This is a material which releases fluoride, helping protect the adjacent tooth from decay. It also adheres to tooth structure and has a similar coefficient of expansion and contraction to your tooth. While it is tooth coloured, it does not mimic the translucency of enamel like composite. It also is slightly soluble in saliva.

‘CEREC’ Restorations
The CEREC system produces true porcelain restorations [crowns, inlays and veneers] using computer aided design and computer aided manufacture or CAD/CAM.  Our Cerec 3D is the latest version of this system, and the culmination of 20 years of development by Sirona of Germany. If you want life like, strong, single visit restorations, exhibiting not just cosmetic benefits but other characteristics such as similar coefficients of expansion and rates of wear to tooth enamel, then talk to us about this revolutionary advance in dental technology.

Zirconia
This non felspathic porcelain has strength similar to metal without the brittleness associated with conventional porcelain. It is now available for use as an alternative to metal to create a coping to which the more cosmetic porcelains can be added to create a life like tooth, This material requires a laboratory process and is therefore a two visit procedure. Zirconia can also be used to build the framework for bridges  instead of metal.[see CHOICES FOR REPLACING YOUR MISSING TOOTH]. The advent of Zirconia has been a major advance in the provision of complex metal free restorations.