Cosmetic Bonding in Bethlehem, PA

Cosmetic bonding, also called dental bonding, repairs a chipped, gapped or discolored tooth with tooth-colored resin shaped directly onto the tooth, and I do it at Always About Smiles, our Bethlehem, PA dental office. Most bonding is finished in a single visit, and very little of the natural tooth is touched.

Modern dental bonding with tooth-colored plastic or resin material can be added to change teeth contours or length and can easily be removed or adjusted if needed. That is the whole argument for it. Unlike a crown or a veneer, bonding usually doesn't require the removal of tooth enamel — the resin is added to the tooth you already have, so if you want it changed later, it changes.

I match the resin to the shade of your own tooth first, in natural light, because everything else depends on that. A bonding agent goes onto the surface, then the resin is built up in layers and each layer is hardened with a curing light. I shape it against the teeth on either side, check it as you bite together, and polish it until it catches the light the way enamel does.

A good deal of the bonding I do is replacement rather than repair — old, worn, cracked, rough or discolored fillings on a front tooth, or bonding placed years ago that has darkened at the edges while the tooth around it stays the same. Replacing it is the same single appointment, and you'd generally whiten first so the new resin is matched to your brightened shade rather than the old one.

Cosmetic bonding is tooth-colored composite resin shaped onto a tooth to repair a chip, close a small gap, lengthen a short tooth or cover staining that whitening won't lift. It's applied in layers and hardened with a curing light, then shaped and polished. Nothing is made at a laboratory, which is why it's finished in one appointment.

Bonding is priced per tooth and it's typically the least expensive of the cosmetic repairs — considerably less than a veneer or a crown on the same tooth. Where bonding is restoring a decayed tooth rather than improving its appearance, insurance usually contributes: we're fee-for-service, we file your claim for you, we're good at it, and we'll push to get you reimbursed. Financing is available.

One visit, usually under an hour for a single tooth. There's no laboratory stage and no temporary to wear, so the tooth you walk out with is the finished tooth. Where several teeth are being bonded together for a more even smile, I may spread the work across two appointments so the shaping can be checked with fresh eyes.

Bonding a chip or an edge often needs no anesthetic at all, since no healthy tooth is being removed. Where decay has to come out first, I buffer the anesthetic chair-side before the injection, which brings it closer to your body's own neutral pH and makes the numbness more rapid and profound, and OraVerse, a novocaine-reversing agent, is available afterward so you're not left numb for the rest of the day.

Typically three to eight years, depending on where the tooth sits and what you ask of it. Under our Peace of Mind Limited Dental Warranty, bonding is warranted three years against fracture with normal use, when you follow our recommendations for exams, cleanings, and treatment.

Bonding, if the restoration is small, you want it done in one visit, and you'd like the option of changing it later. A porcelain veneer holds its color and polish longer and covers the whole front of the tooth, so it suits a badly discolored tooth, or several front teeth redesigned together. I'll tell you which I'd pick.