How Inlays and Onlays Can Help Restore Your Smile What Are Inlays and Onlays?

How Inlays and Onlays Can Help Restore Your Smile What Are Inlays and Onlays?

Sep 01, 2022

They are dental restorations that repair and rebuild teeth after significant structural damage. Inlays & Onlays in Berkeley Heights typically feature porcelain or composite resin. The most common material is porcelain, offering a sturdy solution for rebuilding damaged teeth.

Porcelain inlays and Onlays are indirect dental restorations. Therefore, a dentist in Berkeley Heights must prepare and create them in a dental laboratory, usually as one solid piece. After preparation, the inlays or Onlays can restore your teeth.

How Are They Comparable to Other Dental Restorations?

In dental clinics in Berkeley Heights, people compare inlays and Onlays to dental fillings and crowns. Ideally, inlays are the restorations a dentist would use when the dental filling required is too large to suffice. Therefore, the dentist will use an inlay instead of placing a dental filling too large that it could damage your remaining natural tooth structure.

Dentists in Jersey Smile use inlays and Onlays instead of dental crowns when restorative work is unnecessary. Tooth crowns typically encapsulate an entire tooth to rebuild it. That kind of dental work can be too invasive for a patient. Instead, the dentist can recommend an Onlay as a partial dental crown.

How Do Inlays and Onlays Restore Teeth?

Inlays and Onlays work by replacing the damaged tooth enamel. Ideally, inlays fill in the space of the compromised tooth structure, typically within the cusps of the teeth. Onlays offer more coverage as they restore the tooth within and without the cusps. Therefore, Onlays cover the entire chewing surfaces of teeth, which is why they are popularly called partial crowns. Some of the instances where you would need inlays and Onlays for your restorative treatment are:

  • Broken and cracked teeth
  • Tooth decay and dental cavities
  • A repeated breach in the integrity of an initial direct filling

What Does the Process Entail?

The process of getting inlays and Onlays is similar to dental fillings and crowns. First, the dentist will numb your mouth with local anesthesia to ensure you have a pain-free experience. After that, the dentist will begin removing the damaged portion of your tooth. The only tooth structure that remains is healthy and free of infections.

After the dentist preps the tooth, they make its impressions that will work as measurements for creating perfectly fitting dental restorations. The process of creating the inlay or Onlay happens in a dental laboratory. In the interim, the dentist will cover the prepared tooth with a temporary dental crown, inlay, or Onlay. It should protect your tooth before your dental restoration is ready for installation.

Installing an inlay or Onlay is pretty simple as it entails using dental cement to bond the restoration to the existing natural tooth structure. Dentists use lasers to cure the dental cement and strengthen the bond between the inlay or Onlay and your natural tooth.

Benefits of Inlays and Onlays

If you are hesitant about trying inlays and Onlays, perhaps considering the following benefits will help set your mind at ease:

  • They are less invasive than dental crowns. The dentist will not need to trim your entire tooth’s enamel, as is typical for dental crown procedures. In this way, inlays and Onlays help preserve more of your tooth structure than not.

  • They look like natural teeth. Tooth-colored inlays and Onlays are hard to distinguish from natural teeth. Therefore, while their role is to restore the structure and functionality of your teeth, they also improve your aesthetic appearance.

  • They are durable. Inlays and Onlays featuring porcelain material are durable, typically lasting 10 – 20 years. However, your inlays’ and Onlays’ longevity will be highly impacted by how well you care for your teeth post-treatment.

Tips for Caring for Inlays and Onlays

If you want your inlays or Onlays to last for many years, you must treat them the same as your natural teeth. Maintaining inlays and Onlays is very similar to crowns or dental fillings. You only need to avoid hard foods and items that may crack and damage the restoration. Besides, brushing and flossing your teeth daily is a non-negotiable dental measure for preserving excellent oral health.

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