Dental Bonding
If you have a gap in between two of your front teeth but you don’t want braces, or you have a minor chip that is too small a problem for veneers you might be the perfect candidate for dental bonding.
Whether your teeth have been chipped, stained or cracked dental bonding can help. In fact, dental bonding procedures are used not only to repair physical damage, but also hereditary flaws and some structural damage that has been caused by decay.
Dental bonding involves the use of composite resin that is specially designed so that it can be color-matched to each patient’s teeth to provide a completely natural-looking result.
As with most dental procedures, the more teeth a patient needs fixed, the longer the procedure will take, however minor dental bonding can usually be done in about an hour.
The procedure involves a dentist first applying an etching solution to the patient’s damaged teeth (when decay is involved the damaged area will need to be drilled out first). The etching solution creates grooves that allow for proper adhesion of the composite resin bonding agent. The resin is then applied to the teeth in layers. After each layer is applied it is hardened with a powerful, specially designed light. Once the appropriate number of resin layers has been applied and hardened the tooth can be sculpted and polished until a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing result is achieved.
Some insurance companies will pay for dental bonding, especially if your teeth have been causing you discomfort. Having insurance that covers bonding can be extremely beneficial because, although bonding is inexpensive compared to braces, veneers and almost all other forms of cosmetic dentistry, costs can still add up with prices ranging between $200 and $1000 per tooth.
The great thing about dental bonding is that the result looks and feels incredibly natural. Before composite resin was widely used, when a tooth was damaged or decaying it was commonly repaired with a silver amalgam filling. These amalgam fillings are not only unsightly, but they require much of the tooth’s natural structure to be drilled away so that they can be inserted. Resin bonding, on the other hand, aims to keep as much of the natural tooth in tact as possible.
So if you have a minor dental imperfection that is driving your nuts, or a tooth that needs to be repaired due to decay, look no further than dental bonding. It’s the quickest and easiest way to take your teeth from damaged to drop-dead gorgeous.
