Cosmetic tooth bonding starts with a typical dental exam. Using our iTero intraoral scanner and X-Rays, we will determine whether your teeth and gums are healthy enough for cosmetic dentistry. When you pass with flying colors, we may do a cleaning and fluoride treatment to ensure your teeth are in their best possible condition before bonding.

Your bonds are made of a composite resin that is designed to match your teeth’s natural shade. When we’ve established which changes you’d like to make, it’s time to start the bonding process. To begin with, we lightly roughen the enamel with mild acid, layer on a conditioning liquid, and sculpt the putty onto your teeth.

After hardening with UV light, it’s a careful process of sanding and polishing the bonds into the exact right shape.

How Long Does it Last? While composite resin can stand up to a fair amount of wear and pressure, it’s not permanent. Dental bonds should be replaced every 3 to 10 years. Our dentist can assess you at these benchmarks to see how well your bonds are holding up. If they are still in great shape, they may be able to push your replacement procedure a little farther into the future.

How well you take care of your teeth will have a huge impact on the longevity of your bonds, so don’t forget to brush, floss, and stay away from hard, unforgiving foods. Definitely don’t bite down on that pen cap or use your teeth as tools because that may just lead to an expensive repair.

What Problems Can Tooth Bonding Correct? Dental bonds are great for correcting these minor issues:

• Color. If you suffer from set-in stains, Fluorosis, or tetracycline stains, you can correct these cosmetic issues with dental bonding. The tooth-colored resin completely covers discoloration.
• Shape. Whether your tooth is misshapen naturally, or you’ve lost the natural shape of your tooth due to chips, bonding can reshape and protect your tooth by evening out the edges.
• Length. Broken and short teeth can be lengthened with bonding resin. Some people with “gummy smiles” (smiles where the gums are too prominent) prefer bonding over gingivectomies to lengthen the crowns of their teeth.
• Small spaces. Large spaces should be corrected with orthodontic treatment; however, small spaces can be corrected by expanding the edges of the teeth with resin.
• Chips and cracks. Injured teeth can be aesthetically improved and protected from infection and injury with bonding resin. Rebuilding the tooth this way reduces sensitivity and fortifies the dentin to stand up against pressure and bacteria.