What is the Step-By-Step Procedure to Get Tooth Bonding?
What is Dental Bonding?
Teeth are known to be naturally strong and durable, all thanks to your enamel. However, despite teeth being strong, they can easily chip or crack, especially if you are struggling with bruxism or tooth decay. Should you, unfortunately, crack or chip your tooth, dental bonding is a procedure any dentist near you can perform to repair your tooth and save it from further damage. Find more information about teeth bonding below.
Why Do You Need Dental Bonding?
Tooth bonding is a dental procedure that involves the application of composite resin on a tooth surface to improve your smile appearance. However, there is usually more to repairing a damaged tooth other than cosmetic purposes. Fixing cracks and chips is vital to your oral health since it allows you to chew food properly and helps stop further damage that can pose a threat to the health of surrounding teeth.
Our dentist at 77568 will recommend going for dental bonding to:
- Improve the aesthetic appearance of a discolored tooth
- Close down spaces between your teeth
- Change the shape of a tooth
- Repair cracked and chipped teeth
- Make shorter-than-normal teeth appear longer
- Protect parts of a tooth’s root that remain exposed after gums recede
What is The Step-By-Step Procedure for Getting Dental Bonding?
It usually takes around 30 minutes to an hour to bond a single tooth. Below is a step-by-step guide of the bonding process that you should expect when you come for tooth bonding at South Star Dental:
1) Shade Selection
This is the first step of dental bonding and will involve choosing a shade for your composite resin that closely resembles the color of your teeth. The dentist will use a shade guide chart to select the shade that best matches the patient’s tooth.
2) Cleaning Your Tooth
After selecting the shade color, our dentist in La Marque, TX will thoroughly clean the tooth surface to remove all the accumulated debris, such as dental plaque or tartar.
3) Tooth Preparation
Under the tooth preparation step, your tooth will need some shaping, but this will vary with each specific restoration. Fixing some dental flaws like minor chips will require little or no trimming, unlike in extreme cases where drilling can be extensive, like when a restoration is needed to repair a tooth affected by severe decay.
4) Acid Etching
Once your tooth has been prepared, the dentist will use an acidic gel to etch your tooth’s surface. The ‘tooth conditioner’ usually contains approximately 30% to 40% phosphoric acid. It is applied and left to sit for at least 30 seconds or more before it is washed off.
5) Application of Bonding Agent
With the help of an applicator or a small brush, the dental practitioner will paint the bonding agent onto the surface of the etched tooth. Sometimes, air may be blown gently over the tooth surface to ensure the bonding agent disperses over the entire etched surface evenly.
6) Curing
After successfully applying the bonding agent, the tooth is exposed to a curing light for 10 to 20 seconds. This curing light is used to activate a catalyst found in the bonding agent, causing the bonding to harden. Once an initial bond is established with your tooth’s surface, your dentist will add layers of the dental composite to give your restoration its shape and required build-up.
7) Trimming, Shaping, and Polishing
The dentist will purposely overstack a restoration and then use a drill to trim it to the right shape. As the composite gets sculpted, finer polishing stones will be used to smoothen and polish the tooth, and lastly, check your bite before successfully completing the procedure.
What are The Benefits of Getting Dental Bonding?
Here are some benefits of getting teeth bonding:
- Improves tooth function, shape, and size
- Protects a damaged tooth and improves one’s oral health
- Enhances smile appearance by concealing stains and minor flaws
Get Dental Bonding Near You
A tooth bonding procedure is best suited for teeth with minor injuries or damages and teeth which are not extensively decayed. If you lose a tooth or sustain severe damage, other restorative procedures, such as a dental implant, maybe the most appropriate.
Additionally, this procedure is for persons who are comfortable and happy with their teeth’ color. If this is not the case, then you’ll want to have your teeth whitened before a bonding procedure. Are you looking to get tooth bonding near Texas City, 77591? Give us a call or book an appointment with South Star Dental to get dental bonding in La Marque, TX!