Composite Filling

Yes, you can technically eat right after a composite filling because the material is fully hardened before you leave the dental chair. However, it's recommended to wait 2-3 hours until the local anesthetic wears off completely. Eating while your mouth is numb is dangerous. You could accidentally bite your cheek, tongue, or lip without feeling it. For the first 24 hours, avoid extremely hard, sticky, or crunchy foods that could stress the new filling. After that, you can resume your normal diet.

Yes, modern composite materials come in dozens of shades that can be precisely matched to your natural tooth color. Your dentist will use a shade guide to select the perfect match before starting the procedure, ensuring the filling blends invisibly with surrounding teeth. For front teeth, dentists often use multiple shades and layering techniques to recreate the natural translucency and color variations of real enamel. The result is virtually undetectable.

With proper care, composite fillings typically last 5-10 years, with many patients experiencing even longer lifespans. Factors affecting longevity include filling size (smaller fillings last longer), tooth location (front teeth fillings last longer than molars under heavy chewing pressure), oral hygiene habits, diet, and whether you grind your teeth at night. Composite materials have improved dramatically, and premium materials used in Vietnamese clinics can match or exceed amalgam durability.

Yes, one major advantage of composite fillings is that they're easy to repair. If a filling chips or cracks, your dentist can simply add new composite material to the damaged area, bonding it to the existing filling without replacing the entire restoration. This repair process takes only 15-20 minutes and costs much less than a full replacement. This reparability makes composite fillings more practical than porcelain or ceramic options that must be completely replaced if damaged.

The terms are often used interchangeably, but there's a subtle distinction. Composite fillings specifically repair cavities or structural tooth damage caused by decay. Composite bonding (or direct veneers) uses the same material for purely cosmetic purposes: closing gaps, reshaping teeth, or covering stains: without removing decayed tissue. Both procedures use identical composite resin materials and techniques. In Vietnam, some clinics may list them separately on price lists, but the process and materials are essentially the same.