Dental Veneers Changed My Life

Dental Veneers Changed My Life

Veneers Vs. Bonding: Which Is Best For You?

by Harold Coleman

When it comes to improving your dental appearance, the type of treatment you choose can make a huge difference. Patients looking to mask dental flaws often find themselves caught up in a dilemma on whether to go for dental bonding or veneers.

Bonding is applied to a small section of a damaged tooth, while veneers are attached to the entire surface of the tooth. Both treatments can conceal or repair flaws on your teeth, but suitability for either will depend on your dental needs. Here is a useful comparison of both treatments to help you determine which would suit you best.

Dental bonding

This is a painless way to make minor repairs to damaged teeth. Dentists use a composite resin filling to patch up cracks or cavities on the edges or surface of the tooth. The addition of composite resins in no way alters the original tooth tissue, but rather adds to the tooth to restore its shape or conceal flaws such as cavities or stains. This makes dental bonding a less intrusive treatment, as it merely touches up tooth enamel.

If you are looking to conceal minor flaws in your teeth such as chips, stains or exposed roots from gum recession, then you are a suitable candidate for this dental treatment. Bonding can also fix problems such as slightly misshaped or eroded teeth and small gaps in-between teeth.

Although the composite resins used in bonding are matched to the color of your teeth, sections of the bonding material will usually be visible, which makes the treatment only suitable for concealing small flaws in less conspicuous areas such as the edges or bottom of teeth.

Bonding material is also prone to cracking and breaking, which makes it a temporary solution.  

Veneers

These are ultra-thin pieces of tooth-shaped porcelain that are used to cover the front of your flawed tooth. This makes veneers a suitable treatment for fixing larger problems that may not be easily concealed with bonding material, such as severely gaped, crooked, broken, stained or overlapped teeth.

Porcelain material adheres to the surface of the tooth, allowing it to blend more seamlessly to the tooth. This allows porcelain veneers create a realistic tooth-like appearance that is more aesthetically pleasing than what can be achieved using composite resins. The strong bond created by porcelain also allows veneers to last longer than their counterpart.

Unfortunately, veneers are more intrusive, requiring a significant amount of tooth enamel to be scrapped off to create room for the porcelain film.

Both dental bonding and veneers are used to mask underlying problems on your teeth, but veneers can conceal bigger problems and last longer while creating a more aesthetic look. Ask a dentist, like Kyle J Frisinger DMD, which option they would recommend for you, and use your dentist's opinion along with your own preferences to make a choice.


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About Me

Dental Veneers Changed My Life

I have never liked my teeth. I had a lot of dental problems, including deep staining and oddly shaped teeth. Every tooth did not have the same shape, and some were rounded while others were more square. Not surprisingly, I never smiled in pictures and not even much in real life. This left people thinking I was mean before they even met me. My dentist told me my best bet to improve the look of my smile was a set of porcelain dental veneers. He said they could make all my teeth white and the same shape. I said I wanted them without any hesitation, and we scheduled my procedures. I love my new teeth, and they really did change my life. I created this blog to help other people living with teeth they don't like realize that they do have options that can improve their smiles and their lives.