Onlay Restorations in Valencia and Santa Clarita, CA

A dental onlay is a custom restoration, made in a dental lab, that repairs a tooth with a cavity too big for a filling but too small for a crown. Cleveland Clinic describes inlays and onlays as fitting into your natural tooth structure like puzzle pieces, after which your dentist permanently bonds them into place.

Onlays and inlays are called indirect fillings, because a dental technician makes them outside your mouth before your dentist places them.

The difference between a dental inlay and an onlay is how much of the chewing surface it covers: Cleveland Clinic explains that an inlay fills the area between the cusps of a tooth, while an onlay also covers at least one cusp.

Both are made in a lab, both fit into the damaged part of the tooth like a puzzle piece, and both are bonded into place.

An onlay is not better or worse than a crown or a filling; it suits a different amount of damage. Cleveland Clinic says dentists use inlays and onlays when a tooth has too much damage to support a filling but not enough to warrant a crown, which fits over your entire tooth.

So a small cavity is usually repaired with a filling, and a tooth with more extensive damage may need a crown. Your dentist looks at how much healthy tooth is left and recommends the restoration that fits it.

Getting an onlay usually takes two visits: Cleveland Clinic notes that most indirect fillings need one visit to take impressions and another to place the restoration, though a dentist using CAD/CAM technology may be able to make and place it in a single appointment.

At the first visit, your tooth is numbed with local anesthesia, damaged or decayed tissue is removed, and impressions are taken so a lab can make your onlay. At the second, the onlay is bonded into place and your bite is checked to make sure it feels normal. If you feel anxious about dental work, ask about sedation options.

Dental onlays are commonly made of gold or porcelain, common materials for indirect fillings according to Cleveland Clinic. Porcelain is tooth-colored and made from a mixture of minerals, while gold is mixed with other metals such as silver, tin, copper or palladium.

Our practice emphasizes conservative treatment and metal-free restorations when appropriate. We will explain the materials that suit your tooth before your onlay is made.

After an onlay, some minor tooth sensitivity and gum soreness is normal: Cleveland Clinic says these side effects of a filling procedure are temporary and should go away in a week or two. Pain when biting down can mean the restoration interferes with your bite, and your dentist can fix this by reshaping it.

Call your dentist right away if the restoration breaks or you develop severe pain that does not go away with medication, a swollen face or jaw, or fever, chills or other signs of infection.

Your onlay is made by a professional dental laboratory. Our office uses intraoral scanning and digital impressions.

Where a tooth-colored result suits the tooth, we can discuss metal-free restorations with you before anything is made.