At Canal View Dental Surgery, we are proud to provide high quality general dentistry, restorative dentistry, and cosmetic dentistry services to our patients in a friendly, welcoming environment. Our dentists and highly trained team of dental specialists work hard to make dental care effective and convenient. We design specialized treatment plans to suit your unique needs utilizing our wide range of services, including cosmetic composite bonding (or dental bonding), which can fix chipped teeth and repair a damaged smile.
A Simpler Smile Solution
Dental bonding is a convenient, safe, and cost-effective way to:
- Repair chipped or cracked teeth
- Reduce unsightly gaps or spaces between teeth
- Hide discoloration or faded areas on the tooth’s surface
Overall, dental boding is used to improve the appearance of your teeth and enhance your smile. Dental bonding uses tooth-colored biocompatible materials—generally a composite of plastic or resin—to repair teeth, leaving them strong and your smile as beautiful as ever. Under the care of one of our skilled Dublin, Ireland dentists, the results of dental bonding can often be indistinguishable from natural teeth, as the composite materials actually bond, or become one with the rest of the tooth.
Dental bonding doesn't provide the same longevity as porcelain veneers, but the procedure is much less complicated and can usually be done without drilling or significantly reshaping the tooth. This makes dental bonding ideal for teenagers, who need to wait until teeth have finished developing before choosing a more permanent form of restoration.
Advantages & Drawbacks
Dental bonding has many advantages, including:
- It is a quick process, which typically lasts less than one hour.
- It does not reduce the tooth’s original structure and is relatively inexpensive.
- Composite resins come in many different shades and provide better matching of shades to the natural color of your teeth.
Bare in mind though, some of the drawbacks with dental bonding include:
- Composite dental bonds are not as durable and long lasting as veneers and dental crowns, and may need to be re-touched or replaced in the future.
- Dental bonds stain more easily and therefore require proper care and regular cleaning.
Treatment Process
Dental bonding requires no laboratory involvement, so your dentist can almost always complete the procedure in just one visit to our Dublin, Ireland office.
Steps for the Procedure Include:
- First your dentist cleans the tooth to remove any traces of plaque or bacteria.
- Next your dentist will "etch" the tooth with an acidic gel that will open up the pores in the tooth's dentin. This allows the composite materials to bond to the tooth.
- After washing off the etching gel, your dentist will paint on the composite resin in a thin layer then expose it to a curing light. The resin will infiltrate the open pores of the tooth and harden there, providing a strong foundation for the new structure.
- Once the first layer finishes curing, your dentist adds another layer and then continues adding layers until the tooth is back to its optimal thickness.
- When the last layer of resin dries, your dentist reshapes the tooth slightly to give it the perfect form, then cleans and polishes it.
Caring for Bonded Teeth
It's important to brush and floss your bonded teeth daily and get regular professional deep cleanings. Just like normal teeth, your bonded teeth can stain; so be sure to avoid things like smoking, red wine, cigarettes, coffee, and tea whenever possible. Also, keep in mind that composite material can't lighten, so it is recommended that you do not undergo teeth whitening treatments. Finally, while bonded teeth look like regular teeth, they're not as strong so be mindful of things like nail biting and holding utensils and pens in your mouth.
Contact Your Dublin, Ireland Dentists Now!
Have more questions about dental bonding? We're happy to answer them! Feel free to call our Dublin, Ireland team at: 01 406 6937 or email us at: info@canalviewdental.com. We can't wait to hear from you, and we look forward to helping you achieve and maintain a healthy, beautiful smile!
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Repairing Chipped Teeth
A composite restoration or “bonding” is an ideal material choice for a growing teenager. Composites can be made in a wide range of tooth colors allowing for near perfect color matching with existing teeth — in artistic hands they can be made to look very natural and lifelike.
Artistic Repair of Front Teeth With Composite Resin
Cosmetic dentistry is about creating invisible art — recreating teeth that look totally natural so that no one can tell the difference! It involves a detailed understanding of natural tooth composition and form, choosing the right composite resin to rebuild and restore lost tooth structure, and understanding light and color. Oh, and a dental artist who can put them all together.
