How Long Does it Take a Cavity to Form

How Long Does it Take a Cavity to Form

Lucky for us, cavities don’t form immediately after eating a bag of M&Ms. Nor after a week of binge eating sugar and drinking soda. Cavities can take months, if not years to develop and become a problem. However, that doesn’t mean you should still consume inordinate amounts of sugar.

Cavities are holes in the teeth and start to develop from prolonged exposure to sugar and other detrimental substances. One candy bar won’t give you a cavity. Just like drinking one large soda won’t give you a cavity. It’s that prolonged exposure that can lead to issues.

So while you don’t need to panic right now about a cavity forming after a night of eating sweets, you should be cognizant of how much sugar you’re consuming on a daily basis. Reducing the total amount of sugar in your diet can go a long way in preventing cavities.

How Does a Dentist Fill a Cavity

This process of fixing a cavity is called a filling, which is appropriately named as you’ll see.

A cavity is just a hole in your tooth caused by decay. As a result, the solution is fairly simple. Remove the decay and fill in the hole. While it sounds simple, there’s actually a lot that goes on behind the scenes, but the general process isn’t complex to understand.

Most people become panicked and start asking questions about the process and why a dentist might need a drill to fix a hole. That seems counterintuitive, right? Well, the drill is to fix and clean up the hole. A cavity doesn’t care about uniformity or clean lines, but a dentist does. It’s easier to remove the decay and fill in the cavity if it has a uniform structure. That’s why you might experience a drill when getting a cavity filled.

The dentist then cleans out the decay with a small pick like device and then fills it with a composite resin material. That material then fills the space where the cavity was, preventing any further decay.

What Does a Cavity Look Like

As mentioned earlier, a cavity is just a hole. And that’s all it looks like on your teeth. It might not be clearly visible, but a dentist has been trained to spot cavities and even spots where cavities can develop.

Cavities are just areas of your teeth that have been weakened by decay and sugar. An acute dentist can actually identify these weakened areas before a cavity develops. These areas might exhibit certain conditions or characteristics that make them more susceptible to cavities. And if these areas are identified early, cavities can often be prevented with diligent brushing and regular cleanings by a dentist.

Cavities are just holes in your teeth, but don’t go looking for them yourself. You’ll most likely feel a cavity before you are able to see it. However, your dentist will likely be able to identify a cavity long before you can see it.

Does Getting a Cavity Filling Hurt

This is one of the most common questions when it comes to getting a cavity filled. Does it hurt?

The answer is no, getting a cavity filled shouldn’t hurt at all. It might not be very comfortable to have drills and picks in your mouth, but a dentist should always provide a numbing agent before getting started. That numbing agent will prevent you from feeling anything in your mouth, except pressure.

Most people who have issues in a dentists’ chair often exhibit psychosomatic feelings. These are feelings where someone psyches themselves out and starts imagining pain that isn’t actually there. Adrenaline and other feelings can make you feel uncomfortable and like you’re in pain, even though you’re not.

If you’re someone who panics at the dentist or is worried, then try to relax and not psyche yourself up. Don’t think about it too much because if you do, you’re likely to panic and start to feel pain that isn’t actually there.

That’s much easier said than done, but the short story is that getting a cavity filled does not and should not hurt.

How Long do Cavity Fillings Take

Getting a cavity filled can take anywhere from 15 minutes for a simple cavity to 1 hour for a more complex cavity. Not all cavities are the same. Some may have become deeper or took place in a hard to reach spot. Other cavities may be newer and not require as much drilling.

The length it takes to get a cavity filled depends on a number of factors, such as:

• Location in your mouth
• Number of cavities
• How early it was caught
• Dentists’ skill

However, generally to fill 1 cavity, it shouldn’t take less than 15 minutes nor more than 1 hour. That’s a general rule of thumb. In the past, we’ve written on how long does a root canal take, which is much longer than a cavity.

How Much Does it Cost to get a Cavity Filled

This is a hard question to answer because it all comes down to your insurance plan and every plan is different. Some plans will completely cover the cost of a filling, where other plans may have a copay of $100 or $200.

To know how much it will cost you to get a cavity filled, check your insurance plan information. There are normally mobile apps or a website where you can login to get more information.

We’ve written on this topic in the past, specifically does insurance cover teeth whitening. Questions about insurance and what it covers when it comes to dental procedures are very common.

You can also call the insurance company and ask how much it will cost to get a cavity filled. But when you call, make sure you ask “how much it costs out of pocket” because that is the amount that you will get charged. The dentist may charge $300, but the insurance company pays for $250 of that cost, resulting in an cost of $50 to you.