Our dentists near you restore teeth after being damaged from disease or trauma. While some teeth may only have cracks or chips, others may be missing large chunks of a tooth. In many cases, restorations like inlays and onlays can save your tooth and make it functional again.
What is an Onlay Restoration?
The teeth at the back of the mouth, premolars, and molars have large surface areas with ridges known as cusps that can grind and chew food. When you chew on a non-food item, are in trauma, or don’t treat a cavity, you can break the tooth’s crown.
If you lose part of the tooth, then you may need a restoration called an onlay. Onlays fit over the missing section of a tooth to replace it. Instead of a softer composite material like a filling, a dental lab manufactures onlays for precise placement on the patient’s tooth.
What is an Inlay Restoration?
An inlay is like an onlay, but our dentists in Poway, CA, place it within the cusps of a premolar or molar. It usually takes the place of a filling when a cavity is too large for a regular one. One of our dentists takes images for the lab to measure and manufacture the inlay to fix the tooth. After it comes back from the lab, they cement it in place.
Materials for Inlays or Onlays
Inlays and Onlays near you come from a dental lab manufactured as one continuous piece. Since they go onto teeth responsible for grinding and chewing food, their materials need to be durable. These pieces may consist of:
- Ceramic
- Gold
- Porcelain
- Hard Composite Resins
Choose ceramic, porcelain, or composite resin if you want a tooth-colored restoration. Our dentists have a shade chart to help them match your restoration with your teeth. A gold piece is for people who don’t mind showing a little bling. However, since gold is a softer material, it won’t wear well like ceramic or composite resin over the long run.
If you need a premolar or molar repaired at Heavenly Smiles Dentist, talk to our dentists about using inlays and onlays in Poway, CA, to fix your smile.
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