A porcelain inlay is effectively a kind of filling that is made of porcelain, in the laboratory. In caries or a tooth fracture, the tooth must be restored using restoration materials. The only option for restoring a tooth used to be amalgam, a silver, non-esthetic filling, but in recent years, more and more people choose to have their teeth restored using advanced, esthetic materials – “white restorations”, the shades of which resemble natural tooth shades.
The more extensive the destruction, the less likely an ordinary clinic executed restoration, however perfectly done, will last long. The less tooth material that the restoration material may bind too is available, the lower the chance that the clinic performed restoration / filling will last long.
One of the considerations applying to extensive caries or a fractured tooth is whether the tooth pulp has been damaged; electively performing a root canal treatment or rehabilitating the tooth using a core and crown.
The changes in recent years in the materials field and in the digital scanning and fabrication field allow us to offer laboratory made porcelain restorations / fillings – porcelain inlays and onlays – to restore teeth. It should be emphasized that restorations of this type have been around for many years, but new materials and digital fabrication allow us to fabricate such restorations precisely, esthetically and quickly.
Two visits to the dentists are necessary. In the first visit, the caries and any weakened part of the tooth is drilled out. After that, the tooth is scanned using the dental scanner and the information is transferred digitally to a milling station. The digital milling device precisely creates the necessary restoration for the tooth from a reinforced porcelain ingot. In the second session, the restoration is cemented to the tooth.
