A conservative, tooth-colored repair for a tooth that is too damaged for a filling and too healthy for a crown. The inlay is made in a lab to fit your tooth exactly, then bonded in, rather than shaped by hand in the chair.
There is a real gap between a filling and a crown. A filling works well for small cavities and starts to flex and leak once the cavity gets wide. A crown solves strength by covering the whole tooth, which means reducing the healthy walls to a stump first. An inlay sits between the two.
A ceramic inlay is a solid, custom-made piece that drops into the prepared cavity in the biting surface of a back tooth and is bonded in place. An onlay goes further and covers a cusp, one of the raised points on the chewing surface, when that point is cracked or undermined. Which one you need depends on how much sound structure is left.
Our guide to ceramic inlays covers how they are made and bonded. This page is about the treatment here: who does it, how the visits are scheduled, and what it costs.
Six reasons come up whenever we lay this option next to the alternatives.
An inlay removes only the damaged part. A crown requires reducing the entire tooth, and you never get that structure back.
The ceramic is shaded to your surrounding teeth, and unlike silver amalgam it does not darken the tooth around it.
Made outside the mouth from a scan, so the fit and the contact with the neighboring tooth are more precise than anything shaped freehand.
Ceramic resists wear and staining and holds its shape under chewing forces, which is what a wide back-tooth cavity demands.
Too big for a filling, not damaged enough for a crown. That is the exact situation an inlay was designed to solve.
We confirm an inlay is the right call before recommending it, as part of your routine general dentistry care.
An inlay takes two appointments, because it is made in a lab between them.
We remove the decay or the failing old filling and shape a clean cavity with the smooth walls a bonded inlay needs. A digital scan then captures the tooth and your bite.
A temporary filling protects the tooth while the inlay is made to match your bite and shade. Chew on the other side, and call us if the temporary comes loose.
The fit and the contact points are checked, then the inlay is bonded in with adhesive cement. We adjust the bite until it feels like your own tooth and polish the margins smooth.
Two visits, a couple of weeks apart, and neither one is long. The practical details are worth having first.
The preparation visit uses local anesthetic, so allow a couple of hours before an important meal. The bonding visit often needs no anesthetic at all and fits into a Friday morning before the traffic on Washington builds.
Three materials come up here. Silver amalgam is durable and cheap but conspicuous, and placing it means cutting extra shape into the tooth so it locks in. Composite resin bonds well and matches the tooth, which suits small and medium cavities, though a very wide composite is more likely to wear or leak at the margins. Ceramic costs more and takes two visits, and it holds up best across a wide chewing surface.
What you pay depends on the size of the restoration and which tooth it goes into. We quote the tooth before we prepare it, never afterwards. We accept most dental plans and check eligibility at no charge. See the plans we accept, and note that many policies treat an inlay as a major restoration rather than a basic filling, which changes your share. If a crown is the better answer, our guide to zirconia crown pricing covers that.
Without insurance, your initial consultation is free and any cost is agreed before treatment is scheduled.
Catch it earlier and you may not need an inlay at all. A small cavity is a straightforward preventive restoration, which costs less and removes less tooth.
The practice is rated 4.4 across 114 public reviews and has been open since 1997. It is led by Dr. Marjaneh Moghimi, DDS, who qualified at USC and completed an implant residency at UCLA.
General, cosmetic and implant dentistry all sit under one roof. If the decay under an old filling runs deeper than the X-ray suggested and the tooth needs a root canal or a crown instead, the plan changes in the same chair with the same team.
A filling is shaped and hardened directly in the tooth during your visit. An inlay is made outside the mouth to fit the cavity exactly, then bonded in at a second appointment. The precision is the point: better contacts and margins, less flex under load.
An inlay sits within the cusps of the chewing surface. An onlay extends over one or more of them to protect a weakened point, which is what stops a cracked cusp splitting later.
With good hygiene, commonly 10 to 15 years and often longer. The restoration itself rarely fails first. New decay at the margin is the usual reason one is replaced, which is why flossing that contact point matters.
Yes. The shade is chosen against your natural teeth before the lab work starts, and ceramic resists the staining that discolors older composite.
Two. The first prepares the tooth and captures the scan, the second bonds the finished restoration. Most are done within about two weeks, depending on the lab.
Exactly as you look after a natural tooth. Brush twice a day, floss the contacts either side, and keep your regular check-ups. If you grind your teeth at night, tell us, because a night guard protects ceramic work.
Bring it in and we will tell you honestly, including when a simple filling would still do the job. Your consultation at our Marina del Rey office is free, and eligibility is checked at no charge.
