Dental Bonding

Dental bonding is a great cosmetic dentistry solution for you if you have a gap in between your 2 front teeth or if you that have a minor chip that is too small of a problem for veneers.  Dental bonding can also help if your teeth have been cracked, chipped or stained.  In fact, this procedure can also be used to repair hereditary flaws and some small amounts of structural damage that may have been caused by tooth decay.

This procedure involves using composite resin that has been specially designed in order to match the color of your teeth so that you have a completely natural-looking result.  Of course, the the more teeth that you need to have fixed, the longer this procedure is going to take.  However, if you are only having minor dental bonding done, this can usually be done in less than an hour.

The first thing that your dentist will need to do is apply an etching solution to your damaged teeth.  If this damage has been caused by decay, then the damaged area will need to be drilled out first.  The etching solution will then create grooves that will allow for the proper adhesion of the composite resin-bonding agent.  Once the etching material dries, the resin in then applied to your teeth in layers.  A special light is then used to harden the layers.  Once the appropriate number of resin layers have been applied, the hardened tooth can then be sculpted and polished until a comfortable, aesthetically pleasing result is achieved.

Dental bonding results in a very natural look and feel.  This is much better than the silver amalgam fillings that use to be used whenever a tooth was damaged or decayed.  Of course, these fillings were unattractive and they also required that a lot of the tooth’s natural structure be drilled away in order for it to be inserted.  With resin, as much of the natural tooth as possible is kept intact.

There are many other advantages to using dental bonding.  These include:

1. This is one of the easiest and least expensive cosmetic dental procedures.
2. Unlike with veneers and crowns, which are customized tooth coverings that have to be manufactured in a laboratory, bonding can usually be done in just 1 office visit.
3. Herein the least amount of tooth enamel is removed.
4. Anesthesia is usually not required.

Of course, there are also some disadvantages, which include:

1. While the material that is used in dental bonding is somewhat stain resistant, it is not as stain resistant as crowns.
2. The bonding materials do not last as long nor are they as strong as other restorative procedures such as crowns, veneers or fillings.
3. Bonding materials can chip and break off.

As you can see, there are some limitations with bonding.  This is why some dentists view bonding as being best suited for small cosmetic changes, for temporary correction of cosmetic defects and for correction of teeth in areas of very low bite pressure (such as your front teeth).

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