Dental Restoration

Dental restoration name itself conveys that it restore the damaged teeth and preserves its function and integrity. If your teeth are missing, decayed, weakened or fractured, you might need a dental restoration. Examples of dental restorations include fillings, crowns, veners, onlays, inlays, implants, bridges and dentures.

Introduction #

Dental restorations are the various ways your dentist can replace or restore your missing teeth or fractured teeth, teeth damaged due to dental caries, or structures that need to be removed to prevent further damage to the surrounding parts of the teeth.

Uses #

• The tooth structures that are missing due to dental caries.
• Deterioration (weakening) of old restorations.
• Fractured or cracked teeth due to road-traffic accidents or abnormal bitting of the teeth.
• Decolored teeth due to any trauma to the teeth.
• Teeth with severe fluorosis

Before dental restoration #

The procedures preceding a dental restoration depend on what type of restoration you’re undergoing. Before any procedure, be sure to keep your teeth as clean as possible by brushing and flossing, in spite of it the dentist will also perform oral prophylaxis before proceeding to dental restoration. Your dentist will diagnose dental cavities during check-up. For dentures, during a preliminary visit, they’ll take impressions of both the jaws and proceed in making perfect fitting jaws.

Types of dental restorations #

Examples of dental restorations include the following

• Dental cavity fillings are the most common type of dental restorations. They restore the cavity in your teeth using gold, silver amalgam, and tooth-colored composite resin cements.

• Dental crowns commonly known as caps which is placed over a tooth to restore its shape and size, strength, appearance, to hold a bridge also called as fixed partial denture in place, or to cover a dental implant. Teeth which has to be restored need to be reduced evenly around the tooth so that the crown will perfectly restore the size and shape of the tooth. This process involves few steps and may involve an impression that is sent to the lab, with a temporary filling/crown in the meantime. Some dental offices have CEREC technology in which a digital impression is sent to a milling machine that will fabricate a crown in the office, sometimes it is even done in one visit.

• Dental implants are highly advanced dental restoration techniques. Implants are anchoring posts made-up of metal (usually of titanium or a titanium mixture) that are placed into the bone socket where tooth is missing. The implant may need an attachment called an abutment that will act like a crown preparation which is the process done before crown placement. It is then covered with a crown.

• Bridges also called as fixed partial denture are prosthetic teeth that are designed to bridge the gap created by one or more missing teeth. Bridges can be anchored on either side by crowns and cemented permanently into place using dental cements. Bridges are made from porcelain, gold, alloys, or a combination. Fixed bridges are inserted and removed by a dentist only.

• Dentures are a removable replacement for missing teeth and surrounding tissues of the tooth in the oral cavity. Your teeth might be missing1 because of gum disease, tooth decay, or an injury. They are made of acrylic resin, sometimes combined with metal attachments for greater stability. Complete dentures replace all the teeth. Partial dentures are considered when some natural teeth are present, and are retained by metal clasps attached to the natural teeth. There are three types of dentures

• Conventional

• Immediate

• Overdenture

A conventional denture is a removable denture. It is inserted after several months to weeks depending on the healing condition, once the remaining teeth are removed and the surrounding tissues have healed the process is started.

An immediate denture is also a type of removable denture. It is inserted the same day of teeth extraction. An overdenture is used when there are still some teeth remaining in the oral cavity. This type of denture fits over the teeth, the remaining portions of teeth, and implants.

To-do list after the procedure #

Following a dental restoration dentist might provide you with few instructions which are stated below

• Take soft diet.
• Eat foods that are cold to relieve mild pain.
• If you can handle the heat, try warm soup - this completely depends on patients comfort.
• After any procedure you must continue brushing and flossing your teeth every day which helps in maintaining good oral hygiene.

Risks and Benefits #

Benefits of dental restorations #

• Dental restorations not only help you in masticating your food better, they also help you speak clearly and give you a better smile.
• It also helps in maintainig tooth integrity.
• It is also considered esthetic in some cases.

Risks or complications of dental restorations #

• The most common risk is sensitivity or general discomfort after a dental restoration procedure which will be relieved after oral tissues gets adapted to these restorations.
• Very rarely you may get an infection or have an allergic reaction to the metals used, when u feel such differences you should immediately consult your doctor.
• Secondary infections may occur if you do not maintain proper oral hygiene.