Restorative Dentistry

A bridge is made up of two or more crowns and is placed in gaps that may occur between your natural teeth. Your natural teeth are used as anchor or abutment teeth to which the bridge is attached. Bridges can be used to restore your smile and your ability to properly chew and speak and help in preventing your natural teeth from moving out of position.
More About Bridges

A filling is a way to restore a damaged tooth back to its normal function and shape. When you get a filling, the dentist will remove the decayed material from the tooth, clean the affected area, and then fill the area with a material designed for fillings. There are many types of filling material available, ranging from gold to porcelain.
More About Fillings

Very little preparation is necessary for dental bonding and anesthesia is generally not required beforehand. We will use a shade guide to select a composite resin color that most closely matches the color of your existing teeth.

The surface of your tooth will be etched and a special cleaning/conditioning solution will be applied to allow the bonding resin to adhere to your tooth. Next, we will apply the bonding resin which is putty-like in consistency and can be molded into the desired shape necessary for your specific situation. Once the resin has been properly placed, molded and smoothed, we will use a special ultraviolet light that quickly hardens the resin.

After the resin has hardened completely, we will be able to fine-tune the shape of the resin as well as polish the material until it matches the sheen and overall texture of your natural teeth.

The entire process may take between 30 minutes to an hour to complete depending on your application requirements and how severe the initial issue was.

You can think of a dental inlay or onlay as being midway between a filling and a crown. Inlays or onlays are used when not enough tooth structure remains to support a filling, but the tooth is not so severely damaged that it needs a crown.

An inlay is similar to a filling, but it lies within the cusps (bumps) on the chewing surface of your tooth. An onlay is more extensive than an inlay and covers one or more cusps.

Inlays or onlays can be made of gold, composite resin (plastic) or ceramics. They can last for decades. However, how long they last depends on the material used, the teeth involved, the forces of chewing and how well the patient maintains them with good oral hygiene and regular visits to a dentist.