CERAMIC ESTIMATION (INLAY)
Advances in dental materials have progressively led to many changes in the operative dental techniques. These advances are demonstrated by changes in the preparation design, restoration placement techniques, and improvement in physical properties of the restorative materials. In recent years, resin composites have become more useful as posterior restorative materials. They have the advantage of excellent esthetics relatively low thermal conductivity and preservation of tooth structure in the cavity preparation.
However, posterior composites undergo contraction of between 2.6% and 7.1%.
This results in the formation of gaps as the composite pulls away from the cavity preparation.[3] In addition to these conventional armamentarium, the prefabricated ceramic inlay kit provided by the manufacturers (Cerana, Nordiska Dental Inc., Stockholm, Sweden) contains size-specific rotary diamonds which match with the dimensions of the ceramic inserts. The restoration and dentin tend to expand when subjected to temperature variations in the mouth, increasing the interfacial gap because the coefficient of thermal expansion of composite is different from that of the tooth structure.
Recently, the use of prefabricated ceramic inlays in combination with composites has been recommended to overcome the disadvantages of polymerization shrinkage and poor proximal contacts when using posterior composites. Modern insert systems have been available on the dental market since late 1980s. The purpose of this study was to evaluate longitudinally the performance of prefabricated ceramic inlay restorations in vivo over a period of 1 year.
