Maybe you should ‘dance with who brung ya,’ but you certainly don’t have to keep your discoloured, misshapen, oddly sized, and oddly spaced teeth if you want to make your best possible impression at the dance — or anywhere else. Advances in dental technology and materials have led to the development of myriad cosmetic dentistry options to change the size, shape, colour, and spacing of your teeth. Two common options are veneers and bonding. Is one option any better than the other?
What are veneers?
Veneers are thin porcelain shells custom-made to fit over and be bonded to your flawed but healthy tooth or teeth, while projecting the exact profile you want the world to see. Porcelain is an ideal material for veneers because it is as translucent as enamel and reflects light much like healthy and clean teeth.
What is bonding?
Dental bonding in Sherwood Park uses a composite material much like that used to fill cavities, to repair chipped or cracked teeth, improve the colour of teeth, and to fill gaps between and alter the shape of teeth.
Veneers vs. Bonding
Most dentists who offer cosmetic dentistry services will offer both porcelain veneers and dental bonding to patients with the goal of improving the cosmetic appearance of their teeth.
Dental bonding in Sherwood Park is one of the simplest cosmetic dentistry options available and can be completed in a single visit to the dentist, while veneers may take as many as three appointments to complete the entire assessment, preparation and bonding process.
The additional time required by veneers is due, in part, to the fact that veneers are constructed off-site in a dental laboratory before being bonded at the dentist’s office. Veneers also require more work to prepare the tooth, because your dentist in Sherwood Park will remove a thin layer of enamel so that the veneer can fit onto the tooth without adding bulk or creating any perceptible. Bonding, on the other hand, does not require that the tooth be prepared other than roughening the surface and applying a conditioning agent.
Veneers and dental bonding address the same cosmetic problems, albeit differently. Bonding is most appropriate for minor issues, while more significant problems are better treated with veneers.
Porcelain veneers are crafted from a tooth-coloured resin material shaped and designed to make the cosmetic changes you desire. Bonding involves the application of a putty-like substance made of tooth-coloured composite resin which is smoothened and, after it dries and cures, polished. WIth proper care and good oral hygiene habits, veneers can be expected to have a longer lifespan than bonding, which is best suited to shorter-term cosmetic fixes.
The initial costs of bonding are usually lower than the costs of veneers, in part due to the number of appointments involved. Over time, however, the gap in the cost-value of each option shrinks when you consider that: veneers are stain resistant while bonding is not, meaning that people who opt for bonding may need other procedures to preserve the colour of their teeth; and bonding will need to be replaced more often than veneers, at a cost on each occasion.
Dental bonding in Sherwood Park is, like veneers, one option in your dentist’s well-equipped cosmetic dentistry toolbox. Which of the two options is appropriate will depend on your specific needs. Both are effective options for remedying cosmetic flaws. As a general rule, minor and shorter-term repairs are appropriate for bonding, while longer term and more prominent or involved repairs are best-suited to veneers. For a personalized assessment of which option — among others — is best for your needs, contact a dentist in Sherwood Park.