Bonded Chairside Ceramics
Bonded Dental Ceramics are state-of-the-art in bio-mimetic replacements for worn-out teeth. These restorations mimic nature and provide a durable, beautiful and healthy alternative to traditional metal fillings.
When teeth need to be repaired, you may benefit from a dental ceramic restoration. This information explains the choices available for teeth that need repair and the benefits in having a 'chairside ceramic' dental restoration.
Teeth can develop cavities, they wear down, or fracture from trauma, and dentists have to use some type of artificial material for repair. In the last 140 years dentists have used silver and mercury-based amalgam for fillings, cast gold for inlays and onlays, and many different types of 'crowns' to repair teeth. In the 1980s, bonding to enamel with acrylic resin became popular. These traditional methods worked but dentists have always searched for better materials that copy nature more closely.
Now, large cavities in teeth or teeth with highly visible defects benefit from a technique called 'Milled Dental Ceramics'.
What are Milled Dental Ceramics?
Milled Dental Ceramics (also called milled dental porcelains) are manufactured materials that mimic the way our teeth look, feel and wear. They're made from non-toxic materials like quartz and silica. These same precursor materials are used to make household dinner-sets and glassware. For dentists, blocks of pure material are produced in an industrial process that guarantees high quality, purity, and strength.
A computer made my tooth!-from ceramic block to a new tooth ceramic inlays and onlays
Dentists use a specialised computer to create a 3-D model of your mouth, and design a replacement for the missing part of your tooth. This design is used to fashion a block of dental ceramic into the required shape using diamond instruments with a dedicated dental milling machine.
Q: Why 'Chairside' Ceramics?
A: The process takes place in minutes, right in the dental treatment room.
Why Choose Milled Dental Ceramics?
There are many reasons milled ceramic materials are good for teeth. The ceramic material is deliberately designed to have the same qualities as human tooth enamel.
Beauty
Healthy, natural teeth have a highly glossy, lustrous appearance with an extremely tough surface (the hardest in the human body). This combination is difficult to replicate with traditional dental materials.
Natural teeth are richly-featured and beautifully detailed by nature A milled ceramic onlay
While it's true that gold alloys and silver amalgam can be polished, they lack the beauty of natural teeth.
Plastic and acrylics can be made to look good but are not durable over the life of a tooth, and may require replacement sooner than you'd like. These pictures show chipping and staining at the edges of composite resin fillings after years of service.
Milled ceramic look and feel just like your own teeth
(image courtesy of Dr Terry Fenn, Mosman Park WA)
Milled Dental Ceramics have a surface hardness and finish that's just like your own teeth. When they are polished or glazed, they look and feel like your own teeth again.
Comfort
Hot drinks and cold foods make acrylic and metal fillings expand and contract much more than a tooth, gradually opening 'micro-gaps' at the edges of fillings. This is one of the main reasons for early failure of traditional materials. 'Micro-leakage' caused by these very small gaps can also cause tooth sensitivity, staining and new decay.
The porcelain used in millable blocks of Dental Ceramic is precisely engineered to expand and contract like your own teeth do when they're heated and cooled. This means a big reduction in tooth sensitivity, no staining and much less potential for breakdown at the edge of ceramic restorations.
Function
The surface of teeth naturally wear down. Replacement materials can be too soft, or too abrasive: this can damage your natural teeth. It's much better for your mouth to have a dental material that wears the same way as a tooth, and Dental Ceramics have been engineered so this happens (Click here to see an example).
Longevity
Decay weakens teeth by creating cavities and defects in the natural shape of a tooth. For many years dentists had no simple way of re-creating that lost strength because there was no adhesive for gold, silver or acrylic that worked on tooth enamel. Dental bonding allowed dentists to securely join dental ceramic to natural tooth for the first time. Dental bonding using ceramics can return 95% of the original strength to a damaged tooth.
Plastic plates look reasonable when new, but they don't last like porcelain.
A Restoration, not just a filling
Dentists know that patching a tooth only fixes part of the problem, sometimes as a short-term measure.
Dental 'restoration' on the other hand means you re-gain the original look, feel, and function of your teeth for as long as possible. The only way to guarantee a healthy mouth is by restoring what was missing as accurately as possible. Milled Dental Ceramics are an invaluable part of our efforts to ensure you keep your teeth as long as possible.
How are Milled Dental Ceramics Created?
Let's start with a comparison of old versus new:
Traditional Procedure
Your dentist will remove decay and old filling material, at the same time smoothing your tooth to make the right shape for the new restoration. A dental impression of synthetic rubber makes a mold-this sets in your mouth and records fine details of your teeth. Dental technicians make inlays, onlays and crowns for dentists using the mold made from the dental impression. It normally take 2 weeks before the dentist can complete the treatment. Patients need to wear a plastic temporary crown or onlay during the construction period.
- VS-
'Chairside' Milled Dental Ceramics
Using a highly specialised camera attached to a computer, a series of images are captured inside your mouth. These are processed and result in a virtual model of your tooth visible on the computer screen. Using a library of possible shapes and uniquely-designed software tools, the 3-D computer version of the new restoration is produced.
The 3-D model is electronically transmitted to the 'milling unit', where diamond-coated instruments shape a ceramic block to form the new restoration. This process takes place chair-side, and lasts only minutes. Final fit and finishing is done by hand, with the completed restoration immediately bonded to your tooth-all over in a single appointment.
Process to create a milled ceramic restoration
Bonded dental ceramic represents the state of the art in bio-mimetic replacement for worn-out teeth. Find out more about how these restorations mimic nature and provide a durable, beautiful and healthy alternative to traditional metal fillings.
