To restore a missing tooth requires either an implant at a cost of $6500 to $8000, depending on bone adequacy or a bridge ($6500 to $7000) or denture ($1500 to $2500). Therefore, when we dentists recommend a porcelain restoration (either a crown, an inlay or an onlay) we are trying to give you, the patient, the most appropriate long-term solution and hence prevent catastrophic failure, which can be painful, time consuming and costly. But when you consider you may have to replace a plastic resin filling over and over, the cost differential may prove to be a lot less than first envisaged.Įvery time a tooth or filling fractures or is subject to active disease, this creates a potential for catastrophic failure, which can require removal of the tooth. The porcelain filling is no doubt more expensive, costing between $1500 and $2500, compared with composite from $400 to $600. It’s a matter of working out with you which option best suits your expectations and budget. The benefits and advantages of having a Cerec porcelain filling as opposed to a normal, white filling is it’s a single visit procedure. Then we just polish it, make it nice and shiny, glue it in, check the bite, and there you go.Īt Smile Solutions both options of white fillings are readily available. Then we actually put in a block of ceramic into the metal unit, and start milling the restoration out of the block so that it comes out exactly the right size. And the nice thing about that is we can actually change and make the filling bigger, make it any shape we want, until we’re happy, until the patient’s happy.
From that model we then actually design your new restoration with the help of a computer. And you can see the picture’s coming up on the screen, on the Cerec unit, and that basically forms the model. So we’ve got an inter-oral camera, which is a 3D camera, and we put it on the tooth and actually take pictures. We then take an infrared camera and take photos of the tooth. Then we numb the patient up, we remove all the decay and the filling that needs to be replaced. In terms of the porcelain filling procedure itself, first of all we do an examination, we take x-rays, we see what needs to be done. On molar teeth, which sometimes require a larger filling, they are the material of choice. The wear on porcelain fillings is similar to that on a tooth and with modern bonding techniques, there’s no need to remove a lot of the tooth structure.
The advantage of chair-side manufactured porcelain fillings using “cad cam” technologies – like Cerec restorations – is that they have the same success rate as gold: 93 per cent after 15 years. Nowadays porcelain fillings are made mostly chair- side, while you wait. Porcelain fillings are a lot harder than resin and more natural looking, blending very well with the surrounding tooth structures. They also tend to lose their colour and lustre over time and can look unattractive whereas a Cerec porcelain filling can last up to 15 years and longer. They also shrink as they are set – the bigger the filling, the more the shrinkage, meaning larger plastic fillings can become “leaky” and allow decay around their margins. They cost less but need to be replaced on average every 4 to 5 years as they are unable to withstand heavy chewing pressure and fracture more easily. Porcelain fillings are often called inlays, ceramic or Cerec restorations.Ĭomposite resin fillings do not have the same success rate as porcelain or gold. In terms of terminology, plastic white fillings can be referred to as composite or resin. We often compare the difference between porcelain fillings and composite fillings like the difference between your plastic picnic plates verses your fine china dinner wear. There are fundamentally two different types of white fillings – resin and porcelain. One of the most common misconceptions we find in dentistry is that many people think all white fillings are the same. The ever-increasing demand for aesthetic restorations (white fillings), together with increased longevity, has led to great advances in certain dental materials. Today, with modern technology, we can offer the patient top-quality long-lasting fillings in a matter of one hour.