10 Things to Expect When You Undergo Dental Restoration

If your teeth are crooked, won out, discolored, or damaged and unhealthy in any way, your dentist recommends the dentist in Holmdel may recommend a dental restoration at A&A Dental. There are various types of dental restorations to consider.

Teeth restoration procedures can fix any types of tooth problems to their natural functions while preventing further damage from tooth decay. Additionally, on top of functional benefits, restorative dentistry procedures have some cosmetic advantages. In most cases, the benefits of dental restorations are functional and decorative simultaneously.

Types of Dental Restorations

If your dentist has recommended a dental restoration, here are ten things you should expect at the dental office near you.

• Direct Restorations

Direct restorations complete all the work needed in the mouth. Most direct restorations are in the form of fillings that use malleable materials to fill tooth cavities or cracks. For direct restorations, the tooth must first be cleaned and prepared. After applying the filling material, it’s hardened using UV light to restore the tooth’s structure.

• Indirect Restorations

These restorative dentistry procedures involve forming the treatment material outside the mouth, such as veneers, crowns, dental bridges, and implants. These procedures are or work-intensive, so they are costlier. They also offer long-lasting solutions and can be used even with extensively damaged teeth.

• Dental Fillings

Dental fillings are the most common restoration types and are used to fill cavities caused by tooth decay. Filings do not involve a complex procedure and can be completed in the dentist’s office. If the filling is for the visible teeth, your dentist recommends using a tooth-colored material like ceramics. Some types of tooth fillings include composites, glass ionomers, and resin-modified ionomers.

• Dental Crowns

Dental crowns are cap-like shells placed over the whole tooth and are used to protect cavities, weak or cracked teeth, worn down teeth, and teeth vulnerable to decay. Crowns can be placed by your dentist or a specialist (prosthodontist).

Dental professionals create an impression of the teeth then send it to a lab where the dental crown is processed and placed. In this case, a temporary crown is the first issue as you await the permanent crown.

• Implants

Implants are artificial roots embedded in the jawbone to hold an artificial replacement crown. They are of two types, endosteal – drilled into the bone, and subperiosteal – placed above or on the bone. Subperiosteal is issued when there is not enough healthy jawbone to hold the artificial root.

Implants have the advantage of permanence and function of natural teeth. They also need multiple procedures to complete that last for months. More so, they last for decades.

• Bridges

Also called partial dentures, tooth bridges use false teeth (pontic) held in place by a framework of crowns on the surrounding (abutment) teeth to fic a missing tooth or teeth. They are usually porcelain made to match the color of natural teeth.

Bridges regularly require the covering of the healthy teeth neighboring the tooth gap, and in some instances, need the placement of a tooth implant underneath.

• Dentures

They are detachable false teeth for restoring missing teeth. Dentures resemble natural teeth and gums, and in instances when one loses all their teeth due to decay, infection, or old age, they are issued with a full set of dentures. Also, your dentist may need to remove some cracked or decayed teeth before fitting dentures.

• Veneers

Veneers are common dental restorations and use tooth-colored shells to cover the teeth’ fronts. Many people consider it a cosmetic procedure for perfectly fixing damaged or teeth that look unnatural, for example, very long or short teeth. Veneers are either porcelain or composites made. Porcelain veneers are the most common and are long-lasting than composites.

There are two veneer procedures: traditional – they require extensive preparation work, and No-prep, which require minimal enamel removal and doesn’t require anesthesia. They can last fr up to 15 years.

• Bonding

Tooth bonding is used to improve the appearance of discolored, broken, or chipped teeth. Your dental care provider may use composite tooth-colored resin after molding it to shape then harden it with UV light. However, tooth bonding is not as strong as crowns and veneers. Bonded teeth can chip easily and may need a follow-up repair procedure.

• Bridges and Implants

Some dental restorations procedure may require the placement of bridges with an implant. This mainly involves a bridgework procedure where there are no healthy adjacent teeth to hold the supporting crowns in place. They can also be used where there is an arc of three or more missing teeth. Note that implant-supported bridges can last for a lifetime as compared to other types of bridges.