Failure Management

Direct and indirect restorations can be damaged over time, indicating complete or partial replacement, and their repair through minimally invasive procedures. This chapter will focus on the decision to partially or fully replace damaged direct restorations and failures of indirect restorations. In the modern trend of minimally invasive dentistry, repairing composite resin fillings (instead of replacing them entirely) is a widespread procedure that does not yet benefit from a well-established working technique. Despite all its advantages, the repair of direct composite resin restoration is not a simple procedure. The reasons why a filling can be replaced entirely are allergies to materials, galvanism, recurrent caries, adhesion problems, dislocated fillings, secondary marginal caries with or without fracture of enamel walls, obvious marginal infiltration with discontinuity, extensive marginal pigmentation, and fracture in the mass of the composite or tooth walls.