Fillings & Crowns

Composite Fillings

A composite filling is a tooth coloured filling material that can be placed on a primary or permanent tooth.

Composite fillings may be used to cover one or more surfaces, repair small fractures, minimally damaged or decayed teeth thereby restoring them to their normal colour, shape, contour and function. Composite fillings are also compatible with dental sealants, thereby allowing the dentist to complete both fillings and sealants at the same time.

Composite fillings are not suitable for teeth that have had pulp (nerve) treatment or for extensively damaged teeth.

Composite Crowns For Front Teeth

Adhesive composite crowns for front teeth are used to repair a front tooth that may have been damaged by decay, malformation, discoloration or injury. Because the tooth coloured filling wraps around the entire tooth surface it is much stronger and longer lasting than normal adhesive fillings which only cover part of the tooth.

As with all adhesive restorations care should be taken to avoid sticky chewy food and also patients are advised not to bite into hard apples, carrots using front teeth as they may fracture or dislodge the filling.


Crowns used to restore molar teeth can be white (Zirconia) or silver (stainless steel).

Common reasons for placing a crown include:

  1. Reapairing a baby or an adult molar that is significantly decayed and has little tooth structure left to support a filling. Without the placement of a crown the remaining portion of the severely weakened tooth may decay/ fracture further and extraction may be the only option.
  2. Repairing a baby molar following nerve treatment (pulpotomy).
  3. Repairing a baby molar or young adult molars that is structurally deficient in enamel (Chalky molar) due to a genetic or unknown condition.

The advantages of non-allergic stainless-steel crowns are that they preserve more of the tooth structure, are long lasting and easy to clean. On a young adult molar, the stainless-steel crown can act as a temporary filling and is often replaced with a porcelain crown once the child has reached adulthood.