The patient presented with a discolored filling on the tip. The old filling was made partially translucent, which normally looks very nice and very natural. In this case, the patient’s natural teeth are mostly opaque, which makes the filling look slightly darker. Separately, composites are known to slightly yellow in shade over time. So, the before picture shows an older filling that due to yellowing and translucency, now looks darker than the natural tooth.
When replacing the filling, I chose a more opaque and very bright white filling to match the opacity of the tooth. It is not wrong to use a more translucent material. In fact, in many cases a more translucent material looks more natural. In this patient’s case, the tooth was better served with a more opaque material.
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Thanks,
Dr. Russell McFarlane