cosmetic composite Bonding

Direct Cosmetic Bonding restorations offer an alternative to Indirect Porcelain Veneers and is the choice of material for teeth that require quick and minimal repairs of small chips, cracks, discoloration or are slightly out of alignment.  Additionally cosmetic bonding has advantage of requiring minimal to no tooth reduction and usually requires only one visit to complete. 

How is bonding applied to the tooth? 

The tooth is prepared for the procedure by lightly conditioning the tooth surface and then applying primers and bonding adhesives before the composite bonding material, which is matched to the adjacent teeth, is applied, sculpted into the desired shape and hardened by shining a bright bonding light at the tooth. Once the composite resin has set, the restoration is trimmed, smoothed and polished to a natural appearance matching the surrounding teeth.

How long will the procedure take and how long will my bonded teeth last?

The bonding procedure can often be completed in a single office visit with the length of treatment time determined by the number of teeth to be bonded as well as the difficulty of the required treatment. It can run between 30 minutes up to 3 or 4 hours on difficult full bonded smile reconstructions  It can improve the appearance of a single tooth or recreate a smile for a new you. Since the composite resin used is not as strong as your natural tooth enamel, it is more likely to stain, chip or break than natural teeth so they must be treated and maintained very carefully. Bonding typically lasts three to five years before need of repairs, touch-ups or resurfacing, but if a tooth chips or breaks, it can be repaired in literally minutes.

RESTORATIONS FOR CHIPPED TEETH – OPTIONS THAT ARE AVAILABLE TO RESTORE YOUR SMILE

There are a number of different methods for restoring chipped and stained teeth or teeth that are slightly out of alignment. One of the easiest and least invasive restorations is called cosmetic tooth bonding which uses a white tooth colored composite resin (a very strong space age plastic that is cured by a very bright light to tooth hardness) that is molded and shaped on the tooth to repair chips, erosions (which form at the gum level from brushing too hard), or broken teeth and also to teeth that may be slightly out of alignment. The materials available today can match the color of the tooth almost perfectly and are almost impossible to differentiate from natural teeth. Sometimes a tooth has very small chip that may require only slight smoothing and re-contouring rather than adding a composite restoration, but that would need to be evaluated by the cosmetic dentist and the patent, since you do not want to affect aesthetics by shortening the teeth too much.