The Usefulness of Cosmetic Tooth Bonding


The Usefulness of Cosmetic Tooth Bonding

By Wright Smiles

When you have a tooth that doesn’t match the rest of your smile because of a minor cosmetic blemish, you probably don’t need a complete smile makeover to correct it. Instead, tooth bonding is designed to significantly revamp your smile’s appearance through small, strategically planned improvements.

The procedure involves attaching, or “bonding,” tooth-colored composite resin to a small area of a tooth in order to conceal or correct different types of blemishes. Through cosmetic tooth bonding, you can enjoy a more attractive smile without permanently altering your natural tooth structure.

What Tooth Bonding is For

The first step to any smile enhancement is a thorough examination, during which your dentist will inspect your entire smile to determine the nature of your cosmetic concerns. Tooth bonding is most-often recommended for issues such as;

  • Tooth discoloration (which teeth whitening cannot erase)
  • Chipped or slightly cracked teeth
  • Noticeable spaces between teeth
  • Teeth that seem too small
  • Cavities (when used as a tooth-colored filling)
  • And more

The Steps to Bonding Your Tooth

Before tooth bonding, your dentist will prepare the tooth by lightly etching its enamel to improve adhesion between the tooth and the bonding material.

After placing the adhesive and bonding material, your dentist will sculpt the resin to the desired size, shape, and contour of your tooth.

After the resin is sculpted to the right shape, it will be hardened with a curing light to make it durable enough to withstand pressure, then polished for a beautiful, lifelike finish.

Because a tooth bonding procedure is minimally-invasive, there is typically no need for local anesthesia or dental sedation.