Tooth bonding
Composite is shaped straight onto the tooth and set with a light. For chips, small gaps and worn edges it does most of what a veneer does, for a fraction of the cost and without removing enamel.
The commonest reason people come in for it, and usually a single appointment with no anaesthetic.
A narrow space between the front teeth can be closed without braces, when the proportions will still look right afterwards.
Edges flattened by years of grinding can be rebuilt, though the grinding itself needs addressing or it will happen again.
Being honest about this saves everyone a wasted appointment.
Composite is softer than porcelain and picks up stain at its margins over time. Expect to have bonding polished at your cleanings and replaced every several years, sooner if you smoke or drink a lot of coffee.
For a whole front row, for very dark teeth, or where the shape change is large, veneers hold colour and shape far better. We will say so rather than sell you the cheaper option twice.
Questions
Usually there is no drilling and no injection. If the chip goes deep enough to be sensitive we will numb it.
A single chip is often thirty to sixty minutes. Several teeth take longer because the shaping is what takes the time.
We shade-match in daylight, and composite comes in layers of different translucency so the edge of the tooth can be built to look like enamel rather than a block of colour.
Yes. Because no enamel was cut away, bonding can be polished off and the tooth is as it was. That is its real advantage over a veneer.
Shape, shade and alignment corrected together.
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In-office and take-home, supervised either way.
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When a tooth needs covering rather than filling.
Explore →Where to start, and what it costs.
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The step between a filling and a crown.
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The appointment that prevents the other eight.
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The first appointment is an examination and a conversation. There is no obligation to book treatment at the end of it.