Inlays / Onlays

We offer inlays and onlays treatment in our London and Manchester dental clinics. All of our treatment plans are designed for you, for affordable private dental care.

Inlays and onlays are made in a dental laboratory and based on a model of your teeth. They are then placed in the mouth and attached into the area that requires repair and attached to the tooth with highly specialised dental adhesive. Inlays sit inside the tooth acting to effectively fill the hole that has been prepared after decay removal. On the other hand, onlays fill the hole but also sit on top of the surface of teeth recreating some of their shape and providing extra strength to the tooth where the damage is more extensive.

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Inlays / Onlays vs direct fillings

Shrinkage – conventional direct fillings have an element of shrinkage when they are set hard with a light, this can lead to micro gaps between the filling and the tooth. As inlays and onlays are made outside of the mouth, they are less affected by this.

Due to they way they are processed they, inlays / onlays tend to be much stronger and last longer than direct fillings

However, two visits are required as they are laboratory made and they are therefore more costly. Furthermore , research has shown that there very little difference in failure rates between direct composite filling an inlays / onlays