If due to the tooth defect more than 50% of the amount of tooth tissue (it is evaluated by dentist by inspection of the damaged tooth to establish the degree of the tooth damage and, if necessary, perform endodontics) is lost, the dentist may offer indirect fillings – onlay. Onlays are porcelain fillings created in a dental technical laboratory. The indirect filling procedure consists of two or more dentist appointments. The procedure is being done under local anesthesia.
Description of the procedure
- A dentist removes soft, carious mass formed under bacterial exposure from the tooth cavity.
- Afterward, a dental imprint of the patient is taken to send it to the dental technical laboratory where a precisely-fitting tooth filling – onlay – is being made for the patient’s tooth.
- After taking the imprint doctor closes the cavity with temporary material.
- The dentist and the patient agree on the tone of the onlay to be made to ensure that it completely esthetically matches the tone of other teeth.
- In the dental technical laboratory, an only precisely-fitting to the patient is created. Afterwards the second session of the procedure can take part in the dental cabinet.
- When the onlay is ready the dentist removes the temporary filling and treats the tooth cavity with special gel to disinfect it and prepare for the onlay placement.
- Tooth cavity is treated with a binder material to ensure tight contact of the onlay with the tooth surface. The created onlay is precisely placed and fixed in the tooth cavity by special dental cement.
Onlay materials
In case of indirect filling, dental fillings or onlays suitable for the patient are being made of porcelain in a technical laboratory. It is durable material fully esthetically applicable to the patient’s teeth which does not shrink during the filling process. Comparing to regular tooth filling, onlay is more resistant to the bite load, has longer lifetime, as well as lower risk of development of the secondary caries in the repaired tooth, therefore by choosing onlays a patient makes long-term investment in his teeth health.
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