Cosmetic Bonding

Cosmetic Bonding is a technique which involves the careful sculpting of tooth coloured bonding material to the teeth. Often this treatment can be carried out without the use of any needles or injections. Cosmetic procedures such as cosmetic bonding and veneers work best on teeth which are mostly straight to begin with. 

This method can allow us to significantly alter the appearance of your teeth to make them whiter, longer or wider on specific teeth or across an entire smile to give you a minimally invasive smile makeover. 

We can use Cosmetic Bonding in two different ways:

Edge Bonding

Edge bonding is the use of the material to add on to the length or width of the tooth, matching this in with your own enamel (usually after whitening). This means that most of the tooth isn’t covered over with the material often meaning there is less maintenance and has a lower initial cost. Edge bonding is only suitable for teeth which are already in good positions and well aligned to begin with. 

Full Bonding

Full bonding or full veneer bonding allows us to fully change the shape and thickness of the teeth as well as the shade of the teeth. Often we will use this technique on clients that have lots of old fillings that need to be masked, or those that cannot whiten their own teeth to a shade with which they are happy. We will often use this method to create an entirely new minimal smile makeover for a patient as it can completely transform the smile. There can be more maintenance of this type of treatment however compared to alignment and edge bonding. 

Cosmetic Bonding does not usually involve the removal of a significant amount of your own tooth, if any at all. In some cases we can carry out this treatment “free hand” which requires some artistic input from the Dentist. Often, we will use a Trial Smile beforehand to allow you to visualise your end result and we will use this as a guide to create your new smile! 

A typical bonding appointment can be quite lengthy as it can take time to carefully hand create your new smile. Our end results can either look very natural or we can use the material to create you a bright, white smile!

We expect to see good results over a five year period with Cosmetic Bonding, but it will need regular visits to the dentist for polishing and you will need to take good care of it. Should we have any small chips or breaks it can be easily repaired. There is very little risk of any pain or sensitivity from this type of treatment, but for in the short term your bite will likely feel different. 

After the bonding appointment you may experience a small amount of chipping at the edges of the tooth while your bite starts to settle. This will be refined by the dentist at a second appointment where further polishing will take place to give use the best aesthetic result possible. 

Often, after we have completed the treatment we may recommend that you to wear an overnight bite guard as above to prevent deterioration of the bonding material. Should you decide you do not want to wear a night guard the life span of your cosmetic bonding could be reduced. 

Cosmetic Bonding can often used as a first step towards a new smile in Porcelain Veneers or Crowns as it is a simple procedure with minimal tooth preparation and is very well tolerated by patients and gives fantastic results lasting years.