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Dr. Guy Spinner
16 Old Riverhead Road
Westhampton Beach, NY 11978
631.288.9000

What is Dental Porcelain?

Cosmetic Dentist in Westhampton Beach, NY

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Cosmetic dentistry has come a long way with its modern technological advances and new methods of creating healthy, natural looking smiles. At his Westhampton Beach, New York dental clinic, Dr. Spinner and his staff pride themselves on their knowledge and use of the very latest procedures, including the use of dental porcelain in his cosmetic dentistry practice.

What is it made of?

Dental porcelain is a ceramic material that is hard and semi-translucent. It is completely safe and biocompatible and will provide you with the most natural-looking dental work available today. Dental porcelain offers the technology to create attractive and natural-looking veneers, crowns, and fillings.

How does porcelain work?

Dental porcelain enables Dr. Spinner to simulate the texture, color and translucency of your tooth enamel. Care and attention to detail in the use of porcelain gives you restorative dental work that so closely resembles tooth enamel that nobody can tell the difference.

Porcelain and enamel react with light in similar ways. They absorb it and also reflect it. With enamel, the light enters and is then reflected off the layer below the enamel, the dentin. With porcelain, the light enters and is reflected off the dental cement used to bond the porcelain to your tooth. The result looks the same: a bright pearly sheen that makes your smile attractive and pleasing to see.

Indirect restorations

Unlike metal amalgam and dental composite, porcelain is a hard substance. Dr. Spinner does not apply it directly to your teeth in the way he would give you a white composite filling. Instead, he cleans out all damage or decay and then takes an impression of your tooth, or gathers digital information about its exact dimensions. He sends that to a dental laboratory, where your porcelain restoration is hand-crafted.

That means you need to come for a second visit, after the lab has sent your restoration to Dr. Spinner. He will then fit the veneer, crown, or filling to your tooth like a precise little puzzle piece, and bond it permanently in position. It is then a part of your tooth.

Ideal procedures

Porcelain is excellent for:

• Porcelain Veneers—cemented to the front of your teeth to give a bright new surface over little chips, gaps or slight crookedness.
• Dental Crowns—recommended when you have a tooth that is too decayed to hold a filling. Porcelain crowns can also be used when there is a crack reaching down to the root. Their purpose is to protect the remainder of your tooth from further damage and prolong its life.
• Dental Fillings—Porcelain is used for fillings more often than not in modern dentistry because it is not only durable and long-lasting, but the fillings match your own natural tooth color. They are often called inlays and onlays.

The beauty of using porcelain for these procedures is (a) the material looks just like your own tooth enamel; (b) it is permanently bonded to the tooth, not just packed into it like metal amalgam; and (c) it strengthens the tooth because it’s bonded to it. It exerts inward pressure, holding the tooth together and prolonging its life.

For answers to your questions about these or other cosmetic dental procedures, please read Cosmetic Dentistry - Frequently Asked Questions. Please feel free to contact Dr. Spinner and the staff at our Westhampton Beach, New York cosmetic dentistry clinic, Smile Solutions, to learn how we can help you.

631.288.9000

16 Old Riverhead Road
Westhampton Beach, NY 11978
Fax: 631.288.1800