Restoration Treatments

The advances in modern dental materials and techniques enables St. Petersburg Dental Center more ways to create pleasing, natural-looking smiles. With the development of materials such as ceramics and polymer compounds that look more like natural teeth, patients have several choices when selecting materials to repair missing, worn, damage or decayed teeth.

These new materials have not eliminated the usefulness of more traditional dental materials, such as gold, base metal alloys and dental amalgam. That’s because the strength and durability of traditional dental materials continue to make them useful for situations, such as fillings in the back teeth where chewing forces are greatest.

Direct & Indirect Restoration Treatments

Direct restorations are fillings placed immediately into a prepared cavity in a single visit. They include dental amalgam, glass ionomers, resin ionomers and some resin composite fillings. We prepare the tooth, place the filling and adjust it during one appointment.

Indirect restorations generally require two or more visits. They include inlays, onlays, veneers, crowns and bridges fabricated with gold, base metal alloys, ceramics or composites. During the first visit, we prepare the tooth and make an impression of the area to be restored. The impression is sent to our laboratory, which creates the dental restoration. At the next appointment, we cement the restoration into the prepared cavity and adjust it as needed.