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Bonding Procedures
Bonding involves applying tooth-colored resins to teeth to re-shape them and/or mask stains. Whether you choose acid etching or laminated veneers will depend on whether your teeth are chipped, stained, eroded, or unevenly shaped. Of course, your budget may also affect your decision.
Acid Etching
First, the front of a stained tooth is briefly filed (this is painless for most people) and reduced in size to accommodate a coating of composite. Then, microscopic grooves are etched into the enamel on the tooth's surface with phosphoric or hydrocholoric acid, and a liquid-plastic bonding is applied to the tooth, which is next covered with a tooth-colored composite. This malleable composite is then carved and contoured to match the other teeth. Some composites harden naturally, or your dentist may expose the composite to low-voltage lamplight for about a minute to harden it.
Laminated Veneers
Veneers are recommended for front teeth that are gapped, chipped, stained, worn down, or misshapen. Veneers are applied in much the same way as false fingernails. Where false nails are shaped and glued to natural nails, composite resin (made of plastic and glass-like granules) or porcelain veneers are shaped and bonded to existing teeth.
Warning: composite veneers crack and stain more easily than porcelain ones. Although porcelain veneers are the stronger, they are also more costly. While a composite veneer can be completed in only one visit, a porcelain veneer is more labor-intensive and requires several appointments.
In making either type of veneer, the first step is to remove a thin layer of enamel from the surface of the tooth. In the case of a composite, the tooth is then acid-etched, coated with a bonding adhesive, and covered with the composite veneer.
When making porcelain veneers, an impression of the tooth is taken and a model is made from the impression. The model goes to a laboratory that creates the veneer to fit the model and sends it back to the dentist. In a second visit, the veneer is bonded to the tooth using the same technique used for composite fillings.
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