Dental Terminology For New Technology:
A Quick Guide to What All Those
Words Actually Mean

Bonded Filling - When cavities are relatively small and there is still a lot of remaining tooth structure, a filling can be bonded (chemically attached) to the tooth in one visit.  It is the same color as your natural tooth.

Onlay - When the cavity is larger and the chewing points of the tooth are weakened or decayed, the dentist takes a mold of the tooth so a much stronger restoration can be made in the dental laboratory and then fitted to your tooth.   These can be made of gold or state-of-the-art (tooth colored) ceramic materials and generally take two visits.

Crown - When the cavity is so large that most of the chewing points are decayed or broken, the tooth can still be saved by putting on a crown (cap) that covers the entire exposed tooth structure and literally holds the remaining tooth together.  Also done in two visits.

Bonding - A process that chemically joins the filling, onlay or crown to the tooth.  This is much stronger than cement. Check out these nice bonding results.

Laser Bonding - An advanced technology process that uses an Argon laser to bond the fillings to the teeth.  This new technology produces a stronger and better bond and is available in less than 10% of the dental offices in America.

Transillumination - This is a newer diagnostic process that uses harmless light shining through the tooth to detect sub-surface decay, especially under older fillings.  Natural, healthy tooth structure has a yellow-white color.  Decayed sub-surface areas often look a darker blue-gray color.  This can easily be seen on our state-of-the-art video camera projector system.  This procedure uses natural light, is totally safe and eliminates the dental pick that everyone hates.

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