How Cosmetic Bonding Might Fix Your Tooth Better
Fixing a tooth that’s been worn-down, cracked, or broken can be an important step in restoring and preserving your smile. When it occurs, tooth damage can become increasingly more severe, leading to more problems for your teeth, oral health, bite function, and more. The only way to avoid more serious problems from potentially occurring is to fix the damage to your tooth as soon and as conservatively as possible. This means not only addressing the damage to your tooth’s structure, but also designing treatment that also helps you preserve a maximum amount of your tooth’s healthy, undamaged natural structure.
Less severe types of damage to your tooth
When many people think of tooth damage, the first thing to come to mind is some form of significantly harm to the tooth’s structure, such as a large fracture in the tooth’s crown or a piece being broken off of it. However, a tooth can become damaged in many different ways and to varying degrees. For example, the tooth might have a minor break, or chip, in its structure that doesn’t require as extensive a treatment as a larger break may call for. Other less severe types of damage can include excessive wear to the tooth’s surface, a light crack in its outer layer, and other forms of damage that are minor at first, but could become more severe if left untreated.
What cosmetic tooth bonding consists of
Tooth bonding is often considered a cosmetic dental treatment because it’s often recommended to address cosmetic concerns with your tooth’s appearance. For example, if your tooth is discolored underneath its semi-translucent enamel and its appearance can’t be improved with teeth-whitening, then custom-designed bonding could be a good way to address the concern and restore the tooth’s healthy appearance. However, the nature of tooth bonding, which involves utilizing a small amount of biocompatible, tooth-colored composite resin to address the tooth’s concern, can also make it a viable option for repairing tooth damage that isn’t too substantial.
The advantages to bonding a damaged tooth
When your dentist bonds a damaged or cosmetically blemished tooth, the process is a simple one that involves carefully applying the custom-tinted composite resin to the affected area of your tooth. Then, your dentist can sculpt the resin to match your tooth’s healthy and natural size, shape, and contour before hardening the bonding for a durable and lifelike finish. This process can often help make restoring your tooth a more conservative process, as it doesn’t require any permanent alterations to your tooth’s main structure. This allows you to preserve more of the tooth and improve its long-term health and integrity.
Learn if bonding is your tooth’s best option
Sometimes, restoring your tooth could mean improving it with the right cosmetic dental treatment, such as tooth bonding. To learn more, call our Cleveland Family Dentistry office in Cleveland, TX, today at (281) 592-1234.