Inlay & Onlay

Inlays and Onlays, along with fillings and crowns, are used to repair single damaged teeth, where a mouldable, hard-setting material is applied to a tooth and allowed to set in place.

Fillings & Materials

The most basic form of tooth repair, commonly known, is the filling, where an eroded or decayed tooth is restored to its original size and shape using a hard-setting filling material.

Some damaged teeth must often be removed beforehand, but this is not always the case. Either way, fillings are finished in a single visit.

Different materials can be used, with various appearances and prices, including gold, porcelain, silver amalgam, plastic, composite resin and glass ionomer.

Which of these you would like can be discussed with your dentist at the Dorset Dental Implant Clinic.

Inlays and Onlays

More complex repairs require inlays or onlays.

Whether a repair is an inlay or an onlay depends on the extent of the damage to the tooth that it is treating- specifically, whether or not the injury or decay affects the cusp.

The cusp is the pointed part of the tooth – the ‘occlusal or incisal eminence’.

Different types of teeth have different amounts of cusps; incisors, front teeth have one point, whereas molars, back teeth usually have 4.

The Repair Process

Inlays repair damage that does not affect the tooth’s cusp, whereas onlays are a reformation of the cusp(s) of the tooth or teeth.

For a dentist to complete an inlay or an onlay, more than one session will be needed.

In the first session, the dentist will remove any damaged tooth material and prepare the remaining cavity for the repair to be applied.
Then, the dentist will take a cavity mould and send it to the laboratory, where a custom-fitted inlay or onlay will be manufactured to the exact specification of your tooth. In the second session, the filling will be applied.

Crowns and Implants

A crown or an implant will be used in more serious cases where a whole tooth needs to be replaced.

A crown is used when the whole visible part of the tooth needs to be repaired, but the tooth’s root within the gum is healthy enough to be left intact.

The process is similar to inlays and onlays, although the crown will likely be a little more costly.

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Inlay & Onlay

Fillings & Materials

Inlays and Onlays

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