Composite Bonding – The healthy way to a Cosmetic Smile

What is Composite Bonding?

Patients often ask me if composite bonding can help them improve their smile. Composite bonding/ recontouring encompasses a wide range of treatments. This can range from simply repairing fractured teeth to completely transforming your smile. It involves the precise addition of tooth coloured composite resin to the tooth in a way that rebuilds tooth structure in a natural and aesthetic form.

Composite Bonding – Fracture Repair

It is common to see patients which have suffered previous trauma to their front teeth. This often has resulted in fractures which have compromised either the health or appearance of their teeth and smile. Composite bonding is a great way to repair the tooth, without the need for invasive or heavy preparation of the tooth like was traditionally required for crowns. Here at Infinity Dental Clinic, we always try to use the most up-to-date materials and layering techniques to ensure the most natural result possible.

Composite Bonding – Edge Bonding

Composite can also be used to improve the aesthetics of the incisal edges of the front teeth to improve the shape, size and symmetry of the smile. This often involves using a 3D printed diagnostic wax up of the ideal smile to allow us to digitally plan and prepare for the desired results. Once both myself and my patient are happy with this plan, it can be directly transferred to the teeth. By bonding to the edges of the teeth, this improves the appearance of the smile line and amount of tooth shown. This is a minimally invasive and low maintenance solution to improve the aesthetics of the smile. This can often be completed alongside teeth whitening for maximum impact and the greatest results.

Composite Bonding – Smile Makeovers

Often patients come to us who require more than just the incisal edges of their teeth improving, they are looking for a new smile. The treatment required to transform a patient’s smile can range from whitening, to Invisalign, to composites, to veneers all the way to crowns and implants. The benefit of composite bonding is, where suitable it provides a minimally invasive way to improve the shape and appearance of patient’s teeth. It involves adding to teeth rather than taking away, which often helps the long term health of the dentition. It is all planned digitally, even involving a trial smile, which means the patient is central to the planning process – as it should be! Any final tweaks and adjustments can then be made to the smile to ensure a perfect next step.

As we are both happy with the initial, trial smile result, we can then precisely transfer this design to the final composite bonding treatment. This digital planning ensures the smile will be achieved in one appointment; the process is pain free and uses minimally invasive techniques to deliver the perfect smile.

An example case below shows where our patient was unhappy with the uneven angles and spacing between the teeth. After many years of being self-conscious of their smile, we used composite bonding to improve the size, shape and proportions of the teeth to ensure a perfect smile.

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to come and see us for a consultation if you would like to discuss any of the composite bonding techniques mentioned.

Kind regards,

Hannah Wilson BDS MJDF RCS Eng