What Are Dental Inlays and Onlays?
Dental inlays and onlays are a type of tooth-colored filling made from advanced ceramics. An inlay sits in a single surface of the tooth or fits completely within the cusps if on the top. An onlay is more extensive, covering multiple surfaces or extending over one or more cusps.
As a dentist in Wilmington, NC, we use advanced ceramic materials with excellent translucency to match the luster of natural teeth. These materials come in various colors and can even be custom-dyed for a superb color match. They are also very strong, contributing to their high success rate, as we’ll discuss below.
While dental inlays and onlays are excellent options for restoring damaged teeth, there are several alternatives depending on your needs:
- Dental Fillings: Traditional fillings are used for smaller cavities and can be made from materials like composite resin or amalgam.
- Crowns: For more extensive damage, crowns cover the entire tooth and offer additional protection.
- Veneers: Thin shells applied to the front of teeth for cosmetic improvements.
- Bonding: Composite resin used to repair minor damage or enhance the appearance of teeth.
- Root Canals: Necessary if the tooth’s pulp is damaged, often followed by a crown.
- Sealants: Protective coatings for the chewing surfaces of back teeth to prevent decay.
One-Visit Convenience
Inlays and onlays have been used in dentistry for over a hundred years, but despite their attractiveness, in the past they have been less popular because it used to be necessary to send away to a lab to have inlays and onlays made.
Now, though, CEREC technology allows us to make your inlays and onlays in a single visit. We will first remove any decay from your tooth. Then we will scan your teeth, giving us a 3D computer model to work with. Using that model, we will design your restoration. The plan is sent to our diamond mill, which will grind the restoration according to the plan. Why a diamond mill? Many of the materials we use contain aluminum oxide, which in nature occurs as the second-hardest element, corundum, which includes rubies.
Once the restoration is made, we polish it, check the fit and color match, and cement it in place. The entire procedure takes about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the complexity of the restoration.
Excellent Performance
With the convenience of CEREC inlays and onlays, you might think that they’re kind of throwaway restorations, similar to the temporary crowns you might have received in the past, but you’d be wrong. Studies show that 94-95% of CEREC inlays and onlays last ten years or more, and a full 89% lasted 17 years in a long-term study.
In fact, a study comparing CEREC inlays and onlays to other filling options shows that they have the lowest failure rate of any options. Here are the seven fillings compared and their respective annual failure rates:
- Glass ionomer fillings 7.7%
- Amalgam 3.3%
- Composite fillings 2.2%
- Composite inlays/onlays 2.0%
- Lab-produced ceramic inlays/onlays 1.6%
- Gold inlays/onlays 1.2%
- CEREC inlays/onlays 1.1%
With such a low failure rate and such high aesthetic values, we have no hesitation describing CEREC inlays and onlays as the best fillings available.
If you would like to learn more about the best filling option in Wilmington, NC, including dental inlays and onlays, please call (910) 392-6060 for an appointment at Kuzma Advanced Dentistry.
