Dental Fillings

Even with healthy oral habits like brushing and flossing, your child may still need a dental filling to treat a cavity. It’s especially important to treat decay in a child’s tooth as soon as possible to prevent further damage to that baby tooth and even the adult tooth that’s coming up behind it.

Using a filling helps preserve and protect the structure of developing baby teeth, protects permanent adult teeth and keeps bacteria from getting into a tooth and causing further decay or infection. 

Since it takes time for children to learn proper dental hygiene, and since they have unique challenges and needs as their mouth initially develops, decay is very common and very treatable.

What is a Dental Filling?

Dental fillings are a simple and effective solution to treat the decay and cavities that develop from bacteria in a child’s teeth. Fillings are affordable and thanks to modern innovations in dentistry, are quite unnoticeable when compared to natural teeth. 

If properly cared for and maintained, a dental filling will protect and preserve the permanent tooth underneath the baby tooth.

Why Would My Child Need a Dental Filling?

Even if your child brushes twice a day, flosses and sees us regularly, bacteria can still build up on teeth as plaque. An excess of plaque can lead to tooth decay in the form of cavities, or holes that develop in teeth. 

If left untreated, a cavity can become severely infected down to the tissues of a tooth. Since baby teeth protect adult teeth, deep damage to a baby tooth can cause problems for permanent teeth before a child even comes close to adulthood.

When caught early enough, cavities are very treatable with a simple filling. This is another reason to make sure your child comes in twice a year. We examine your child’s teeth for decay during every hygiene appointment.

What Happens During a Cavity Filling for a Child?

When treating a decayed tooth, our team first removes the affected and possibly infected material from the inside the cavity. Depending on the level of decay and how big the cavity is, we may apply a local anesthetic around your child’s tooth to numb it. This includes using a flavored topical gel to numb gums, too.

Once we apply the filling, we harden it with a special blue light. To protect the tooth from further decay, we also apply a dental sealant to keep plaque and bacteria from gathering on its surface. 

Finally, our team shapes and molds the filling so your child’s bite is normal.

Does Your Child Need a Dental Filling in Chicago?

Are you looking for cavity treatments near you? At Dentistry at Millennium Park, we are pleased to serve the pediatric patients of Chicago. We also offer emergency dentistry for kids experiencing severe tooth pain.

Call our office today for an appointment: (312) 750-9000.