subject: Onlays – The Better Restorative Option for Larger Repairs [print this page] Onlays The Better Restorative Option for Larger Repairs
You've just found out you need a filling but the area is larger than usual. Although crowns are great for major damage or when a tooth has had a root canal, you don't really want the expense or to remove unnecessary tooth structure. But if repaired with amalgam or even a much healthier composite material, such a large filling could eventually lead to further damage of your tooth. What can you do?
There is an alternative: porcelain dental onlays.
Dental onlays are a restorative method somewhere between a filling and a crown and work best when teeth have:
Cracked
Fractured
Decayed
Have large cavities
Although onlays can be made of either gold or a composite resin, the best dental onlays are made of high strength porcelain. Onlays cover the chewing surface, or the cusp, of the tooth to protect and strengthen while keeping your tooth structure as close as possible to what nature intended. Just like porcelain crowns, porcelain onlays are biocompatible and non allergenic. Almost any patient, no matter what sensitivities he or she might suffer from, can tolerate a porcelain onlay with no ill effects.
Porcelain onlays are far more stable and healthy that metal fillings traditionally used to repair large cavities. They do not shift with temperature changes the way metal doe. This means that your tooth will remain strong and intact for a much longer time than with traditional metal fillings.
One of the benefits that many patients may not even consider is the aesthetic benefit of porcelain onlays. Porcelain onlays blend beautifully with your tooth so there is no ugly dark spot or unnatural shade in your smile. Your teeth just look amazingly strong, white and healthy as if you never had a cavity in your life!
The porcelain onlay repair can be completed in two easy visits. The first visit is for preparation of your tooth removing any decay or damage and taking an impression or mold of the tooth to be repaired. This mold is then sent to a laboratory for the creation of the porcelain onlay. The best labs create onlays that are so translucent and life-like that patients sometimes can't find them in their mouths after they have been placed! Your dentist will place a temporary filling in the tooth, which will be removed once the completed onlay arrives. When the lab returns your onlay, you will come back for a second appointment during which your temporary filling will be removed and your final porcelain crown will be replaced and fitted.
If you have old metal or amalgam fillings that you would like to have replaced, talk to your dentist about that as well. Replacing metal fillings with porcelain onlays or inlays (the smaller version of an onlay) can not only make your smile look younger and fresher, it can help you feel better too!
For more information about porcelain onlays in Lewisburg and surrounding areas, call Dr. Larry Winans at 570-524-4454 or visit www.drwinans.com.
