Cosmetic issues like discoloration, gaps, cracks, and chips can negatively affect your smile, leaving you less confident. Tooth bonding is an effective and non-invasive treatment that uses resin tooth-colored filling material to enhance your teeth’s appearance, posture, and shape. To determine whether you are an ideal candidate for the treatment, please read this blog post and consult your cosmetic dentist.
Dental Bonding
Dental bonding is a treatment in which dentists apply and harden a durable plastic material (composite resin) with a special light, bonding the composite resin to the teeth and restoring or improving your smile.
Tooth bonding is an effective treatment option when seeking to:
- Repair cracked or chipped teeth.
- Repair decayed teeth; composite resins can fill tooth cavities.
- Change the teeth’s shape.
- Make your teeth longer.
- Enhance the appearance of discolored teeth.
- Safeguard a section of an exposed tooth’s root due to the receding of the gums.
Dental Bonding Pros
The advantages include the following:
- Comprehensive treatment—Dental procedures are an excellent solution for addressing oral concerns, including minor gaps and cavities.
- Fast and non-invasive — Tooth bonding is a minimally invasive process that requires minimal tooth preparation. The procedure is not painful because your dentist will not work near pain-sensing tooth nerves. Typically, anesthesia is not necessary during the treatment.
- Reversible—If minor damage happens over time, bonding could be easily replaced or fixed at an affordable cost without any tooth reductions.
- The procedure has zero downtime, and you can resume your daily routine immediately.
Dental Bonding Drawbacks
The cons of tooth bonding include the following:
- Staining — The composite bonding material can stain after eating and drinking specific foods and beverages.
- Compared to natural teeth, tooth bonding is less resistant and could be prone to wear and tear.
- Limited aesthetic—While tooth bonding has a natural-looking outcome, it might not have the same translucency level and aesthetic appeal as ceramic veneers, especially for extensive cosmetic cases.
How to Prepare for Your Dental Procedure
If you are contemplating getting dental bonding, your doctor will conduct imaging testing to examine the condition of your gums and teeth and check your eligibility. Before bonding your teeth, they will treat oral health conditions like tooth decay, cavities, and gum disease.
Your dentist will also professionally clean your teeth to remove tartar and bacteria from your gums and teeth and prevent bacteria from developing beneath your dental bonding.
You can get teeth whitening before the treatment; your bonding material does not bleach. Therefore, it is wise to whiten your teeth to the desired shade and then match your bonding to the shade.
Dental Bonding Procedure
The tooth bonding procedure requires a single appointment. Your physician will fix a composite resin to your cracked or chipped tooth. The composite resin is suitable for molding, allowing you to obtain a new tooth that flawlessly fits your natural smile.
Some crucial steps during the tooth procedure include the following:
- Shade selection—Before the dentist treats your teeth, you will start the procedure by selecting the appropriate shade of the dental composite resin.
- Preparation of the tooth — The dentist will clean your tooth to establish the proper bonding surface.
- Application of tooth adhesive — The dental specialist will apply the resin and shape the bonding material.
- Bonding application — With a small brush, the dentist will dry the material using UV light and shape the tooth further.
- Composite application — The dentist will eventually polish the tooth bonding for a better smile and floss your tooth to ensure smooth restoration.
- Next, the dentist will cure the tooth using a blue curing laser or light to polymerize the bonding material.
- Finishing and polishing — Your composite bonding will receive a finish to help achieve seamless integration with the nearby teeth.
The bonding process takes thirty minutes to an hour to complete. Nevertheless, if you have several teeth to be treated, it can take a couple of visits.
Dental bonding does not require anesthesia, so you can resume your daily schedule immediately following your appointment.
What to Anticipate Following this Cosmetic Dental Treatment
Since the bonding material dries fast, you can drink or eat after treatment. However, some people experience tooth sensitivity for days following the bonding. You should avoid cold, hot, crunchy, and hard foods and beverages to ease the discomfort. You can also take painkillers.
Your teeth can feel different for a few hours after treatment, impacting your speech. The effect is temporary. However, your dentist should rectify the issue if the bite feels off. You should also consult your dentist if you notice a sharp edge on your bonding teeth or if your bonding falls off or chips.
How Long Will Your Tooth Bonding Last?
Your tooth bonding can last up to ten years. However, their longevity depends on factors like:
- Your oral hygiene.
- Eating habits.
- Your tooth’s location — Your bonding is more durable in the front tooth than in the back tooth, which is prone to heavy biting.
How to Take Care of Your Bonded Teeth
Achieving healthy bonded teeth takes a lifetime of care. Some of the tips include the following:
Brushing Your Teeth
How you brush your teeth is essential. A poor brushing job is almost as bad as not brushing at all. Take time, and gently move your toothbrush in circular motions to remove plaque. Unremoved plaque can harden into calculus or tartar, which can cause gingivitis (gum disease).
Plaque has cavity-causing bacteria that thrive on food particles in your mouth. The bacteria feed on sugary foods and generate acids that could cause tooth decay.
You should brush your teeth twice a day. However, most people continue to neglect brushing at night. Brushing before bed eradicates plaque and germs that accumulate throughout the day.
Use a Fluoride Toothpaste
When choosing your toothpaste, look for elements beyond flavors and whitening power. Regardless of the type you choose, ensure it contains fluoride. Fluoride fights germs that cause tooth decay and offers teeth a protective barrier.
Ensure the toothpaste is non-abrasive.
Floss Once a Day
Brushing twice for two minutes is the initial step in maintaining your bonded teeth. However, even the best toothbrush cannot effectively cleanse the spaces between the teeth. Dentists recommend flossing once a day to remove plaque and food debris.
If you floss correctly, it does not matter when you perform the flossing. The most essential thing is ensuring flossing is part of your everyday oral routine. Pick a daily time when you can offer your bonded teeth more attention.
Cleaning between the teeth should not be painful. Too hard flossing can damage the tissues between the teeth, while too gentle flossing can leave plaque and food particles behind. While you might feel discomfort when flossing, you should determine how much pressure is okay.
Here is how to floss effectively:
- Take approximately twenty inches of dental floss, wrap it around the middle finger, and leave about two inches of floss to work with.
- Holding your floss with your index fingers and thumbs, guide it between the teeth and, in a sawing motion, move it between your tooth contacts.
- After the floss is between your teeth, curve it into a C-shape and press tight against a tooth. Next, slide it up and down your root and tooth and under your gum line. Please note that applying pressure can cut or irritate your gum tissues.
- To remove your floss, use a back-and-forth sawing motion.
- Repeat these steps for every tooth. Do not forget your last tooth’s backside in all mouth corners.
- Finally, dispose of the floss in a trash can.
Drinking a Lot of Water
On top of keeping your body hydrated and properly functioning, drinking plenty of water offers your oral health numerous benefits, including the following:
- Keeping your mouth clean — Unlike other beverages, water does not leave a sugary residue for bacteria to feed on. It also flushes away food debris, excess sugars, and bacteria from the mouth.
- Strengthens your enamel—Water contains fluoride, which strengthens and remineralizes damaged enamel and reduces the risk of tooth decay.
- Prevents dry mouth.
Some tips for drinking more water include:
- Carrying a water bottle wherever you go.
- Monitoring your daily water intake and setting goals to maintain or increase it.
- Drinking water after and before meals.
Visit Your Dentist Regularly
While you should observe your daily dental routine, you should visit your dentist twice annually. During your appointment, the dentist will clean your teeth, identify potential issues in your dental bonding, and offer the most appropriate treatment solution.
Things to Avoid with Bonded Teeth
After your treatment, you should avoid any substances that can stain your teeth, especially when drunk or eaten daily. It can include red wine, specific fruit juices, anything with artificial color, coffee, and tea.
If you are a smoker, you should consider quitting.
Using your teeth as tools and biting on hard and crunchy foods like nuts and candy can cause chips and cracks in your teeth.
How Dental Composite Bonding Differs from Veneers
While dentists use both dental bonding and veneers to correct your teeth’s gaps, fractures, discoloration, fractures, chips, or misshapen teeth, they are different. Here are the common variations:
Tooth Preparation
A key difference between dental bonding and veneers is the preparation involved.
Before placing porcelain veneers, the dentist removes a thin layer of the outer tooth’s covering (enamel), allowing the veneers to fit your natural smile. On the other hand, composite bonding requires a dental professional to make your tooth’s surface rough so that the resin will bond correctly.
In other words, while dental bonding is minimally invasive, placing veneers is irreversible.
Their Appearance
Veneers and composite bonding dental procedures provide a natural-looking outcome. You can pick a suitable shade of either to match your smile seamlessly. Alternatively, you can select a lighter shade of porcelain veneers for a whiter final finish.
Veneers also offer light-reflecting properties like your natural enamel.
Patients use dental bonding for minor cosmetic issues, like tiny gaps or chips. On the contrary, porcelain veneers cover the whole tooth surface.
Durability Variation
Veneers are more durable than dental bonding and can last several years with the appropriate care. Composite bonding could be easily repaired if damage occurs, while cracked porcelain veneers require replacement.
Overall Cost
Dental bonding typically costs less than porcelain veneers, but the price of each procedure depends on your personal needs and preferences. You must consult a dental expert who will evaluate your smile to determine the precise cost.
What is the Cost of Dental Bonding?
The cost of tooth bonding depends on the following factors:
- The number of teeth to be treated — The more teeth your dentist will treat, the higher the cost. Also, if your dentist will bond multiple teeth in a single dental appointment, they might require additional materials and time, increasing the cost.
- The procedure’s complexity—If your dentist needs to reshape your teeth or repair any extensive damage, you will incur more costs.
- The material used — Composite resin is the most popular material for dental bonding, and its cost ranges between $100 and $500 per tooth. Materials like ceramic and porcelain can be more costly.
- The dental practice’s location — A facility with high rent costs or in an urban center is more likely to charge more.
- Your dentist’s credentials and experience — A healthcare provider specializing in cosmetic dentistry may be more experienced at dental bonding and charge more than a general dentist.
Does Health Insurance Cover Dental Bonding?
Insurance can fully or partially cover your treatment, depending primarily on your deductible, if your dentist deems the procedure medically essential. It includes fixing structural challenges like cracked or chipped teeth. However, your health insurance plan will not cover tooth bonding if it is for cosmetic purposes, like closing a gap between the teeth.
Before scheduling your appointment, please find out how much the dental expert will charge and the amount the insurance company will cover.
Contact a Seasoned Cosmetic Dentist Near Me
Consider dental bonding if you are looking for a natural way to conceal dental blemishes like misshapen, cracked, discolored, or broken teeth. It is also a pocket-friendly cosmetic dentistry option that enhances your teeth’s appearance and functionality without draining your wallet. The qualified team at Northridge Advanced Dentistry can meet with you to examine your teeth and gums, determine your eligibility, and discuss how the treatment can help you improve your smile. Please contact our office at 818-701-3010 to schedule your consultation. We can create your personalized treatment plan and answer your questions.
