At Nashville Aesthetic Dentistry – Dennis J. Wells, DDS – Dennis J. Wells, DDS, our dental team works together in order to provide patients with a smile they can look forward to flashing every day. However, what if you have a tooth with an issue?
If you have a decayed tooth, we can help repair it. However, perhaps the decay is too large for a simple filling. Sometimes, our team can perform an inlay or an onlay instead of a crown. Usually, they are more affordable than a porcelain crown.
Inlays/onlays are “indirect fillings,”. We will produce them in a lab and place them whole on the tooth. When we perform traditional “direct fillings”, we apply the material to the tooth while the material is malleable and then shape it.
INLAY
We will use an inlay to fix the surface of a damaged tooth, ordinarily to fill a small cavity or a natural pit that is at risk for decay.
Typically porcelain or composite resin are used for inlays; these materials are heavy-duty and look very natural because the color can be matched to the surrounding teeth. Our team will precisely fit an inlay to your tooth so it looks, feels, and functions like the previous tooth.
ONLAY
An onlay, or partial crown, covers a larger part of the tooth. Onlays are generally applied to the biting surface of the tooth. Just like inlays, our team will exactly fit them to the damaged part of the tooth. We will use composite resin and porcelain as the main materials used to create an onlay.
At Nashville Aesthetic Dentistry – Dennis J. Wells, DDS – Dennis J. Wells, DDS, our incredible dental team will consult with you on the best way to improve your smile and to repair that tooth issue. We can also discuss other cosmetic dentistry options that could improve your smile, such as teeth whitening, and implant dentistry. We look forward to seeing you in our office.