Robust highly aesthetic repairs for your damaged teeth

Conventional fillings are commonly used to fill cavities on the biting surfaces of your back teeth.

In small to medium-sized holes, these can provide long-lasting and reliable restorations.  However, in teeth with larger defects, these fillings are in most cases not strong enough and it’s common to see the weakened, thin and often cracked tooth walls break off.

It has long been considered best practice to fill teeth with large cavities with reinforcing fillings called onlays. These are strong fillings which overlap the entire biting surface of the back tooth, acting as a sort of splint.  They are made from tooth-coloured modern ceramic or resin because of their aesthetic advantages.  The best aesthetic results are achieved with ceramics, and at York Place Dental it’s our mission to make every onlay as invisible as possible.

An onlay is made by a specialist dental technician in a dental laboratory and, having explained the process to you, your dentist will take an impression, or an imprint of the appropriately prepared hole in the tooth and this will be sent to the dental technician. Your ceramic onlay is then made using the latest CAD technology in a specially designed milling machine. It is then glazed and prepared to look exactly like a tooth and is returned to the practice for your fitting appointment.  As long as you and your dentist are happy with the fit and aesthetics of the tooth, it is bonded in using a modern, high strength cement. Your tooth will then be in the best possible condition.

Onlays are very strong and can usually be expected to last much longer than fillings in large cavities in your back teeth.  They are especially suitable for the chewing surfaces of back teeth and for large repairs to front teeth where it can be difficult to make a white filling look natural.  With a ceramic onlay, we can get a much better match to the colour of the teeth.

If you are a patient who grinds or clenches your teeth at night, an onlay is an extremely useful tool to help to prevent your teeth from crumbling.

In the UK we are seeing an increase in tooth wear related problems. This can be due to either habits such as clenching or grinding, dietary issues such as acids in food and drink, or just simply the fact that we’re all living longer.  As a result, dentists are changing their mindset about the way that teeth are repaired and the ceramic onlay is a key element of the modern dentist’s toolbox.  Wherever possible, we will advise you to have the strongest possible filling so that it will last you longer.