To improve the smile, dental bonding involves applying a matching tooth-colored plastic material to the tooth, which hardens with a special light.
Dental bonding in Ealing is an effective, convenient and affordable way to correct minor issues with your smile. These include damaged teeth, discoloured teeth and gapped teeth. Dental bonding can also sometimes be used to replace traditional (silver) fillings or to protect the roots of teeth when gums start to recede.
The benefits of dental bonding
Dental bonding is a very straightforward treatment for a wide range of minor issues. The fact that it is much simpler than alternatives such as dental veneers means that it can be performed relatively quickly.
This not only makes sure that you get the results you want in minimum time but also minimizes the cost and the time you have to spend travelling to a dentist in Ealing.
The disadvantages of dental bonding
Dental bonding is a light-touch treatment for minor issues. This means that it has to be treated gently. In particular, you need to commit to avoiding bad habits such as nail-biting and using your teeth as tools, e.g. to open bottles.
You will also need to be slightly careful about what you eat and drink. Hard and/or sticky foods may damage the dental bonding. Strong-coloured foods (and tobacco) can stain the dental bonding. This cannot be whitened like regular teeth.
A good Ealing dental clinic will be able to advise you about these issues before you decide whether or not dental bonding is right for you.
How does dental bonding work?
Your tooth will be treated with a mild acid. This is effectively the equivalent of priming a surface before painting it. The dentist will then apply a resin to the appropriate parts of the tooth. The resin is dried and hardened using a special light.
At the end of the process, the dental bonding will look identical to the natural tooth. The colour will be an exact match and the shape will be perfectly contoured to fit the remaining part of the tooth.
What’s more, your tooth’s original enamel will be left intact. This means that dental bonding is an entirely reversible process. This means that if for any reason, you don’t like the result, you can easily have your tooth restored to how it was and try something else.
How long does dental bonding last?
Dental bonding typically lasts anywhere between four and ten years. How long dental bonding lasts depends on how gently (or roughly) it is treated. This partly reflects your dental habits and partly reflects where the dental bonding is applied.
For example, your front teeth are generally used for strong bites, e.g. crunching into an apple. This means that dental bonding on your front teeth is likely to need to be replaced fairly quickly. By contrast, your back teeth are mainly used for chewing. This means that dental bonding on your back teeth can last for much longer than dental bonding on your front teeth.
Caring for dental bonding
Other than being gentle with it, you can treat dental bonding in the same way as you treat your regular teeth. Go ahead and rinse, brush and floss as normal.
If you’re looking for a trusted, well respected and highly experienced private dentist in Ealing, West London our friendly state-of-the-art clinic can help. Our goal at SSS Ealing Dental and Skin clinic is to provide the highest standards of dental care in a manner tailored to meet your specific needs and wishes.