Restoration & Material Terms
Crowns, bridges, inlays, composites and ceramics — what gets placed in the mouth, and what it is made of.
13 restorations & materials terms, A-Z
- Abutment — An abutment is the connecting component that attaches a dental crown, bridge, or denture to a dental implant or to a natural tooth.
- Amalgam — Dental amalgam is a silver-coloured filling material made from a blend of mercury, silver, tin, and copper, used for over 150 years to restore decayed teeth.
- Bridge — A dental bridge is a fixed restoration that replaces one or more missing teeth by anchoring an artificial tooth (pontic) to neighbouring teeth or implants (abutments).
- Composite Resin — Composite resin is a tooth-coloured filling material made of a plastic matrix reinforced with glass or ceramic particles, used for fillings, bonding, and aesthetic restorations.
- Crown — A dental crown is a tooth-shaped cap placed over a damaged, decayed, or aesthetically poor tooth to restore its shape, size, strength, and appearance.
- Denture — A denture is a removable replacement for missing teeth and the surrounding tissues, available as a complete (full) denture for a fully edentulous arch or a partial denture when some natural teeth remain.
- E.max Crown — A premium all-ceramic dental crown made from lithium disilicate glass-ceramic.
- Glass Ionomer — A tooth-coloured filling material that bonds chemically to enamel and releases fluoride.
- Implant — A dental implant is a titanium or zirconia post surgically placed into the jawbone to act as an artificial tooth root, supporting a crown, bridge, or denture.
- Inlay — An inlay is a custom-made restoration that fits within the cusps of a back tooth, used when a cavity is too large for a filling but too small for a full crown.
- Lidocaine — Lidocaine is the most widely used local anaesthetic in dentistry, providing rapid and reliable numbing of soft tissue and teeth, usually combined with epinephrine to prolong its action.
- Onlay — An onlay is a custom-made indirect restoration that covers one or more cusps of a back tooth, used when damage is too extensive for an inlay but the tooth does not need a full crown.
- Zirconia — Zirconia (zirconium dioxide) is a high-strength, tooth-coloured ceramic widely used in modern dentistry for crowns, bridges, implants, and full-arch restorations.
About restorations & materials terminology
A restoration replaces lost tooth structure; the material determines how it looks and how long it lasts.
These entries pair restoration types with the materials they are made from.