A person might not be aware that he already needs to have a dental treatment unless his tooth is aching.
There are a lot of factors to be considered to say if a person might need to have some dental treatment or not.
We tend to ignore tooth decay and as soon as time passes by, it becomes worse than ever; in this kind of situation, it is needed to have a consultation with a dentist.
To determine if a person or a patient has a tooth decay there are some steps that are being done by a dentist.
The first step is determining this problem through an observation - the dentist will use an explorer in this procedure.
He will need to search and check each tooth if there are any decay.
The next step of identifying tooth decay is through a cavity-detecting-dye which will stick to the decayed tooth and will be washed off from the healthy tooth.
Another procedure or way is through x-rays that will show those decays that are cannot be seen outside the teeth.
As soon as a patient has been determined of having tooth decay it is best if he/she will consult a dentist to have some dental fillings.
These fillings are also called dental restoration that can be used in restoring the missing structure of the tooth; these fillings are mostly tooth-colored to match the tooth's color.
To apply this dental restorative material, the first step is to put some anesthesia on the part of the decayed tooth.
This is to make the portion temporarily numb so that the patient will not feel the pain.
Then after this, the decay will be removed using a drill or hand instruments as well as lasers or air abrasion.
The instrument will depend on the size of the tooth decay; in this part, the dentist will first use a high speed drill for the enamel since this is the hard part of the tooth.
As soon as the drill reaches the second layer called dentin, that is the time that he will need to use a low speed drill since this part is softer than the first one.
He will need to check if the decay has been removed, if it was already taken off from the tooth, he will then put some paste or dental fillings as what we call them.
A base can be first applied on the tooth to protect the nerves; the base can be made of glass ionomer, zinc oxide, composite resins and the likes which can also help the tooth stay in place.
One good thing about those compositions is that some of them include fluoride to protect the tooth from having decay again.
There are different types of fillings that can be applied on the teeth and all of them differ from the procedures of application and compositions.
As soon as dental fillings have been applied the dentist will polish it and will firmly cover the tooth hole.
After the procedures a patient might tend to feel uncomfortable with it but after some weeks it will subside and everything will feel normal again.