Inlays and Onlays for Large Cavities: How They Can Save Your Tooth
Have you heard about getting dental fillings to restore minor cavities and dental crowns for significant damage to your tooth by dental decay? What would be your reaction if informed alternatives like dental inlays and Onlays could also help conservatively treat teeth affected by minor insignificant decay?
Generally, fillings help restore minor cavities, and crowns are helpful if the decay is more profound or if significant fractures need covering up. However, you may have a situation when a dental filling is insufficient, and a dental crown is too much to protect your tooth. In such cases, you benefit from dental inlays and Onlays treatment in Clearwater, FL, as the dental professional considers it appropriate to close the gaps. Inlays and Onlays are more substantial than fillers but nonintrusive as crowns require significant tooth reshaping.
How Do Inlays and Onlays Save Your Tooth
Inlays and Onlays save your tooth differently than fillings and crowns. Inlays fill cavities and holes in a tooth restoring areas between the cusps. On the other hand, Onlays, besides filling gaps in the hollow spaces, work on a larger area with the cusps without encasing the tooth’s entire surface. Similar materials help make inlays and Onlays serving the same function but covering different areas of the tooth to protect it correctly if it is affected by tooth decay.
The Inlay/Onlay Procedure
If recommended inlays &Onlays treatment by the dentist near you, expect the procedure to be similar to getting dental fillings or crowns. However, inlays and Onlays, also known as indirect restorations, are not created in the dental office but require a second appointment with the dentist because these restorations are fabricated in a dental laboratory.
When receiving inlays or Onlays, the dentist near you must remove tooth decay and clean the tooth before they impression it for the dental laboratory to fabricate your restorations. However, you can expect the dentist to numb your tooth during the procedure to ensure you don’t experience discomfort when they drill out the cavity or reshape the tooth to accommodate an onlay.
Dentists recommend inlays when a cavity is significant and will not support standard silver amalgam fillings because they could crack or weaken the tooth. On the other hand, an onlay will fortify the tooth by preserving tooth structure, unlike a crown requiring extensive structural removal to accommodate it. These restorations are made from porcelain or resin but serve similar functions by covering a portion of the tooth instead of the entire structure.
Benefits of Inlays and Onlays
Inlays and Onlays offer several benefits when fixing your tooth to protect it against decay. Firstly they are more durable than dental fillings or crowns and have more extended durability because they can stay on your teeth for over three decades with proper dental hygiene.
Inlays can restore larger cavities insufficient to fill with standard fillers and are more durable. Amalgam fillings can expand and contract according to temperature changes resulting in tooth cracking. On the other hand, inlays will strengthen the tooth because they do not expand or contract because of the material that helps make them. In addition, inlays can handle 75 percent more chewing forces than the tooth could before the decay.
Onlays, on the other hand, require insignificant tooth structure removal because the dentist merely reshapes the tooth instead of removing tooth structure to preserve most of it. Onlays help cover larger areas than inlays and might appear like dental crowns. The dentist recommends Onlays when they determine that you don’t need an aggressive restoration like crowns ensuring more of your tooth structure is preserved.
Potential Drawbacks of Inlays and Onlays
After understanding the benefits of inlays and Onlays provided by the dental office in Clearwater, FL, it helps if you know their potential drawbacks.
Inlays and Onlays are more expensive than fillings or crowns and require at least two appointments with the dentist to restore your tooth. In addition, you must endure temporary inlays and Onlays until the dental lab returns your permanent restorations in about a week or two. However, they serve specific and similar purposes, and many dentists consider them an excellent alternative to fillings, crowns, and other therapeutic options.
If tooth decay is insufficient to restore with fillings or dental crowns, Soni Smiles General & Implant Dentistry provides an alternative restorative therapy with dental inlays and Onlays. Consult them today to determine whether you can restore your tooth with these alternatives that preserve and protect sufficient tooth structure with a durable solution.