How Long Does Dental Bonding Take?

April 1, 2022

Is the thought of spending several hours in a dental office a turnoff? You are not the only patient who worries about spending long hours seeking dental treatment. Even though you need to transform the appearance of your smile, it should not always equate to long hours of treatment. Procedures like dental bonding in cosmetic dentistry provide alternatives to patients so they get a quick fix for their dental issues and still attain their desired dental expectations.

What is Dental Bonding?

It is a dental procedure common in cosmetic dentistry for repairing and restoring teeth to improve their appearances. The process involves using tooth-colored composite resin to modify the color, shape, and size of your teeth.

What Does the Process Entail?

The first thing you must know about dental bonding procedures is that they are painless. It means that you will not need sedation or numbing before your treatment begins. However, sometimes dentists may decide to numb the mouth if they determine that the patients have infections that may cause dental pain. After that, the process of modifying your teeth can begin.

A dentist near you will not necessarily need to trim all your tooth enamel to begin the dental bonding process. Instead, (s)he will remove only the damaged part of your tooth. The amount of enamel your dentist removes will depend on the treatment plan to fix your teeth. If it regards a dental cavity, your dentist may remove more tooth enamel than is the case with teeth whitening.

The dentist will then immediately start contouring it with the composite resin. The process also relies on UV light or lasers to harden the resin, making it one with your natural teeth.

How Dental Bonding is Used in Dentistry

Dental bonding in Gillette, WY, can transform your smile in many ways. Cosmetic dentists in 82716 have identified several oral problems that require dental bonding for treatment, including the following:

Dental discoloration – stains on your teeth, particularly the front teeth, depreciate your smile’s aesthetics. Dental Bonding treatment protocols at Mountain West Dental can improve the color of your teeth as an alternative to professional teeth whitening methods that involve enamel bleaching.
Cracked, chipped, and broken teeth – the easiest and quickest fix for your tooth structure is through dental bonding. The dentist will cover the cracks and chips on your tooth, polishing it for a glare that matches your natural teeth.
Dental cavities – composite bonding can be used as a type of dental filling for restoring dental cavities. Composite fillings involve the dental bonding process geared toward filling the gap. The filling material with be the same composite resin used for other dental bonding procedures.
Uneven spacing between teeth – ordinarily, teeth should have even spacing between them. However, orthodontic challenges regarding the alignment of your jaw, size of your teeth, among others, can affect the spacing. Instead of getting braces, a cosmetic dentist can use dental bonding to close up small spaces between teeth.
Crooked teeth – like with uneven spacing, the crookedness of teeth typically requires braces and bands to fix. However, a cosmetic dentist can shape your teeth accordingly and straighten them with composite bonding. The result does not impact the alignment of your jaw but targets the situation and appearance of teeth when you smile.
Unusually short teeth – teeth wearing down is not unlikely for adults as they age. Besides, people with a history of teeth grinding and clenching have a high risk of having unusually short teeth. Part of teeth contouring in cosmetic dentistry entails lengthening such teeth to complement your facial appearance.