These are materials intended for dental use. There are different types of materials whose properties vary depending on the purpose for which they are designed, including temporary dressings, dental prostheses, endodontic materials, impression materials, dentures and implants. Materials have intrinsic properties, which are inherent to them, and extrinsic properties, which become apparent when force is applied to them. Lead fillings were historically used in the 18th century, but lost popularity in the 19th century as it became soft and, of course, before lead was found to cause poisoning. During the American Civil War, there were dental manuals explaining how to place metal fillings made of lead, gold, tin, platinum, aluminum and amalgam.

Dental Restoration Materials

They are used to replace teeth that have lost structure due to decay, tooth wear, or trauma. In other situations, these materials can be used as cosmetics to improve the appearance of your own teeth. The restorative material should be identical to the natural structure of the tooth in terms of strength, adhesion and appearance. The properties of these materials fall into four categories:

Physical properties: These include low thermal conductivity, resistance to various types of forces, wear, chemical erosion and abrasion; at the same time, everyday conditions such as chewing and material texture must also be supported.

Biocompatibility: There must also be a biological balance (tooth and body), the problems that present some dental materials is that they contain leaks of chemicals from the material, they irritate the pulp and less frequently, but it can happen they are allergies

Esthetics: Ideally, filling materials should match the tooth structure in transparency and texture.

Dentists require materials that are easy to handle and where the chemical reactions are predictable and controllable.

Direct restorative materials

They are the ones that are placed directly in a cavity or tooth, the chemistry of restorative materials are biologically compatible and structured to resist heat and can not damage the tooth or the patient. The main reasons for the failure of this use of the material is that there may be fracture of the real tooth around the filling, the risk of caries and bruxism in personal factors.

The materials used are amalgam, a metallic filling material consisting of a mixture of mercury and alloy powders, mainly silver, tin, zinc and copper. The composite resin, which is a mixture of powdered glass and plastic, can resemble the natural tooth, cement, glass ionomer, which is currently very popular because it is biocompatible to some extent with the dental pulp, and a resin modified with glass ionomer cement that hardens when light hits the insertion site because a catalyst in the cement ensures that it hardens in seconds.

Indirect restorative materials

Indirect restorations are those in which a tooth or teeth are prepared for restoration, a dental impression is made and sent to a dental technician who fabricates the restoration according to the dentist's prescription. These can be made of porcelain, which is hard but can cause abrasion to opposing teeth, composite, which simulates the color of teeth and hardens with light, and gold, which has excellent durability and does not cause excessive wear to opposing teeth.