The status of restorative dental materials.

The ideal restorative material should enable teeth which have suffered trauma or have been damaged during the removal of caries, to be restored to their original function and appearance. At the same time a seal should develop between the material and the tooth such that bacteria-laden fluids cannot permeate the dentine and reach the pulp. Few, if any, of the materials currently available fulfil these requirements. This short series will consider the current status of each.