Different Ways of Restoring Teeth

Although there are many ways of restoring teeth we can generally divide this area into two headings, direct and indirect restorations or fillings.

Direct restorations

When we speak of direct restorations, we are referring to fillings that are constructed inside the mouth and not in a dental lab. These are the normal fillings that people think of when coming to the dentist. We replace old fillings with a white plastic material called composite resin. It comes in several shades to match your own tooth color. This substance is bonded to your tooth and completely hardens once it is cured with ultraviolet light.

Example of fractured tooth restored with a filling

Severely fractured tooth

Composite resin filling restores look and function of original tooth

Indirect restorations

Indirect restorations refer to restorations that have been fabricated in a dental lab and are then cemented onto teeth. There are several types of these, the most common being a crown. In addition there are inlays, onlays and veneers.

Crowns

A crown completely encases a tooth. They come in several materials and are fabricated at a lab. When a crown is finally made, it resembles your natural tooth. Crowns are equally as strong as teeth, however they are not indestructible and do need to be maintained with regular flossing and brushing.

There are many reasons why you might consider repairing teeth with crowns. When a tooth is very stressed from conditions like a fracture, a very large filling or hairline cracks that could eventually worsen, dentists recommend crowns to give teeth strength and to stop any further deterioration from happening to the tooth.

Crowns are also recommended for molar teeth that have had root canal therapy. Root canal therapy tends to weaken the tooth and since molar teeth take on a lot of force when chewing, we recommend a crown to encase the tooth and prevent it from fracturing in the future.

Veneers

A veneer is a very thin piece of porcelain that is cemented over the face of the tooth. Veneers are used in the front of the mouth for cosmetic reasons. They can be used to mask heavily stained or restored teeth or be used to fix spaces between teeth. However, if the fillings to be replaced at the front of the mouth are too large, we can use all-porcelain crowns or porcelain bonded to metal crowns. Porcelain comes in several shades so that we can match it to your natural tooth color. To view some before and after pictures of patients treated with veneers and crowns click here.

Inlays & Onlays

Inlays come in all porcelain or gold, and they are usually used to replace fillings because they look nice and because they are very well built. Onlays are similar to inlays but take up more tooth structure like, the walls and the top of a tooth. They are on the same level as a crown. To view vefore and after photos of onlays click here.

Home | Services | Articles | About Us | Faqs | Policies | Suppliers | Links

 To contact us directly, click here.

If you have any questions or concerns about this website, contact our webmaster.

This site and its contents are protected under international copyright laws.
Website design by Capstone Communications Group