Treatments
Fillings, crowns and bridges
Repairing teeth that are decayed, cracked, worn or missing. The aim is to keep as much of your own tooth as possible, and to fix the reason it happened rather than just the damage itself.
- Fillings
- Usually one visit
- Crowns & bridges
- Two or more visits
- Material
- Tooth-coloured composite
- Quote
- Itemised, before starting
What repairing a tooth involves
Which of these applies depends on how much healthy tooth is left, not on how much you would prefer the cheaper option.
Fillings
For decay or small areas of damage. Tooth-coloured composite is bonded directly to the tooth in a single visit, which usually means removing less healthy structure than older materials required.
Crowns
A cap covering the whole tooth, made in a laboratory. Used when too little healthy tooth remains to hold a filling, or after root canal treatment when a tooth needs protecting from fracture.
Bridges
A fixed replacement for a missing tooth, anchored to the teeth either side. Not removable, and a good option where the neighbouring teeth are healthy enough to carry it.
Replacing a missing tooth
A gap left alone tends to cause problems over time, as neighbouring teeth drift and the bite changes. The options I provide are a bridge, which spans the gap using the teeth either side, or a denture, which can replace one tooth or several and is removable.
Dental implants are not a treatment I provide. If an implant turns out to be the better answer for your situation, I will tell you that plainly and refer you to a practitioner who does them, rather than steering you toward something I can do instead.
How we decide what to do
- 01
Find out why it happened
A broken tooth or a failed filling usually has a reason behind it: decay, grinding, or a bite that concentrates force in the wrong place. Repairing without addressing that means repairing again.
- 02
Lay out the real options
Including doing nothing for now, where that is genuinely reasonable. Each option gets explained with what it involves, roughly how long it should last, and what it costs.
- 03
You choose, with a written quote
Itemised and taken away if you want time. Nothing gets booked on the strength of a conversation you had while lying down with a mirror in your mouth.
- 04
Treatment, then review
The work gets checked at your regular appointments. If something is wearing faster than it should, that tells us the underlying cause has not been solved yet.
If fillings keep breaking, grinding is often why
Repeated cracks in fillings or crowns usually point to force rather than bad luck. Protecting the work with a night guard is considerably cheaper than replacing it every few years.
Frequently asked questions
Get a damaged tooth looked at
Small problems are cheaper and simpler to fix than the same problem six months later. If a tooth is broken or painful right now, call rather than booking online.