Composite Bonding Explained
Composite bonding is a tooth-coloured material made from a safe composite resin that’s applied to the tooth in layers to change the underlying tooth’s shape, size, and colour. A cosmetic dental treatment and solution, composite bonding can repair minor tooth damage, such as broken teeth, and even close gaps between teeth.
Ten years ago, no one really knew about composite bonding (dental bonding or tooth bonding, as it was more commonly known). But today, even teenagers are looking into the treatment—this is because it’s an easy, cheap way to improve your smile without damaging the underlying tooth or structure (like often seen with Turkey Teeth).
Learn more about composite bonding, and how much it costs.
A dental patient’s guide to composite bonding
It’s important to note that composite bonding improves a portion of your tooth, unlike composite veneers, which cover the entire tooth. If you have larger imperfections in your smile that you want to hide, composite veneers might be the better option as they’ll improve the whole tooth, as opposed to a particular area. Explore composite veneers (they can also be placed in just one appointment and involve no injections or drilling).
Composite bonding before and after
The advantages of composite bonding
Composite bonding has several incredible benefits, making it a desirable treatment for patients with various dental problems.
- The procedure is painless and requires no injections or any local anaesthesia.
- The procedure involves no drilling, which preserves the underlying tooth structure.
- Composite bonding is by far cheaper than any other cosmetic treatment.
- Composite bonding is applied chairside, and no laboratory work is necessary.
- Composite bonding is completed in one visit to the dentist, typically in one hour.
Composite bonding limitations – what to be careful with
- Composite bonding can break or chip under certain pressure.
- Composite bonding does not last as long as other cosmetic treatments like veneers.
- Composite resin is more susceptible to stains from smoking, coffee and other types of food and beverages that cause discolouration.
- Dental bonding only lasts between 5 and 7 years but is easy to repair and replace.
What is composite resin?
Dental composite resin is a popular restorative material that’s tooth-coloured and often used in both general and cosmetic cases. For example, the restorative material is frequently used now in dental fillings, where we can replace a decayed portion of the tooth’s structure with composite. Composite resin offers more aesthetics than conventional dental amalgam.
“The wear performance of modern composites is comparable to amalgam and enamel with abrasion wear rates from ∼5 μm to ∼100 μm per year.” Science Direct.
Composite resin is a plastic and glass mixture that not only restores decayed teeth but is now used widely for cosmetic improvements of the smile to change the tooth’s colour or reshape disfigured teeth, for example.