Dental Bonding
HEALTH SERVICES BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Your Simple Solution to Your Simple Tooth Problems
Do you have a minor tooth chip, discolouration, alignment problem or spacing problem in your teeth? The solution to that is quite simple! Most likely, all you need is a simple procedure of dental bonding.
What is Dental Bonding and How Does It Work?
Dental Bonding is a form of adhesive dentistry where your dental professional applies a tooth-colored resin, which is a plastic material, to a broken, crooked or wrongly spaced tooth to correct the position, size or shape of a tooth or set of teeth. The resin is bonded with the material of your tooth and helps improve the overall aesthetics of your smile.
The process and technology behind dental bonding started back in 1955 when Dr Michael Buonocore published a paper on the benefits of acid etching. This process paved the way for the first generation of tooth filling. Since then, technology has improved the procedure in terms of convenience and sensitivity to application errors.
The adhesive materials used on dental bonding can stick to practically any material, whether it be enamel, dentin, metal, porcelain, ceramic or zirconia, all with a single application. This ensures that your fillings last for a long time.
Problems that Dental Bonding Can Address
Being one of the most simple procedures available to patients, dental bonding is the best solution to minor tooth problems that might include.
Slight chips to the tooth. Dental bonding is used to replace the parts of your teeth that might have chipped off.
Slightly shorter teeth. When you have a tooth that is smaller or shorter than those around them, we can resort to dental bonding to lengthen the tooth and make it level with the others.
Slightly misaligned teeth. When there’s a slight misalignment on a few teeth, this can be solved by “adding” to the teeth in a way that levels all of them.
Slightly spaced out teeth. The spaces and crevices between teeth that might be too far apart can be compensated by tooth filling.
Tooth discoloration that doesn’t react to other teeth whitening procedures.
How Dental Bonding is Performed
The first thing that our dentist will do is determine whether the procedure can be done to your teeth. If your problem might be more serious than wanted, our dentist might suggest a more advanced treatment. Advanced tooth decay on certain parts of your teeth could also be another hindrance to your treatment so this step is extremely vital to ensure the success of the bonding.
Once you’re cleared for the procedure, your dentist will then choose the shade of material that will match with your current set of teeth most to ensure the filling looks as natural as possible.
After choosing the color, your dentist will then abrade or etch the surface to make it rougher so that the adhesive bonds well with your teeth. This procedure is practically painless and doesn’t require any anesthesia or sedative. The tooth is then coated with a conditioning liquid that helps with the bonding strength.
When your tooth or set of teeth are ready, your dentist will then apply the resin, which is then molded and smoothened to the proper shape. A blue ultraviolet light is exposed to the resin to harden it. Once hardened, your dentist will then shape, polish and trim it further to give your smile that polished look.
This whole process will often last anywhere between thirty minutes to a full hour to complete. If you are having more than one tooth done, several schedules may be needed to fulfil the procedure.
One important note: Tea, coffee, cigarette smoke and many other substances can add unwanted stains to the resin material. So to prevent stains, it’s highly recommended that patients avoid eating or drinking foods that can stain for the first 48 hours after any composite procedure.
Dental Bonding and Porcelain Veneers: What Are the Differences?
Some of the most common questions we get asked a lot are those pertaining to the differences between Dental Bonding and Porcelain Veneers. While they mainly serve the same purpose, there are a lot of differing traits and factors between both. Here are just a few.
| Dental Bonding | Porcelain Veneers | |
|---|---|---|
| Aesthetics | Good aesthetics | Excellent aesthetics, they are custom made and artistically crafted by a highly skilled ceramist |
| Correction capability | Great for correcting minor aesthetic flaws | Able to correct most aesthetic flaws |
| Durability | Can last up to 5 years | Lasts more than 10 years |
| Tendency to chip | More susceptible to chipping | Less susceptible to chipping |
| Tendency to discolour or get stained | Susceptible to staining, regular maintenance required | Does not discolour over time |
| Cost | Cheaper short-term alternative | A long-lasting investment> |
| Time of Treatment | Relatively shorter and can be done in one visit if changes are minor | Relatively longer and will always require more than one visit. |
Maintenance of Dental Bonding
Compared to other more high-end forms of cosmetic dentistry, dental bonding can be more susceptible to staining or chipping. We recommend that patients take special care of bonded teeth to keep it looking natural and healthy for a long period of time.
Here are some tips that we recommend our Melbourne patients follow to take care of dental bonding:
Reduce the intake of coffee, tea or red wine as these are very much known to cause stains on resin material.
If you’re a smoker, it would be highly advised that you quit. This can actually be a good solution not just to the upkeep of your dental bonding, but to your overall dental and respiratory health as well.
Avoid biting or chewing on hard objects such as nails, ice, pens and so on.
Make it a point to be religious about follow up check ups with the dentist. Also, if you feel that there’s something wrong with your dental bonding or if your bite feels strange, book a visit with your dentist as soon as you can as a touch up might be required.
Before & After Gallery
We have transformed thousands of smiles and improved the confidence of countless patients
Frequently Asked Questions
Dental bonding seems to mainly be about filling in small gaps between teeth to make a smile look more cohesive. Is there a width at which dental bonding simply isn’t the right thing any more?
Dental bonding is a cost-effective solution to filling small gaps between teeth, but as mentioned, it is only meant to fix minor gaps. There isn’t a set distance that we recommend when performing dental bonding to fix gaps as that will all depend on other factors such as the size of the tooth and the placement.
But as a good rule of thumb, the goal should be to make the teeth look natural still even with the filling. When we know it will look too wide or too awkward, it’s better off to try a different solution. You can visit the possibility of getting Invisalign or braces to correct major spacing issues.
Does slight crookedness still require some sort of braces or Invisalign which covers the entire row of teeth? Or are there smaller devices which can bring a couple of teeth closer together?
What’s the typical cost difference between Dental Bonding and Porcelain Veneers?
How long does the cosmetic smile assessment consultancy take, and how much does it cost?
The time it takes to assess someone’s dental needs and the cost attached to it can vary a lot depending on the severity of the case.
