Here at Smilemakers, your cosmetic dentist in Southampton, we know that not everyone wants to go the whole hog in order to enhance their smile. Some people baulk at the idea of changing the structure of perfectly good healthy teeth in order to improve their appearance.
This is especially true if there isn’t much visually wrong with your teeth. Maybe one or two are a bit worn from years of use, or they have a chip or small crack, or the surface of the enamel is rough and tends to discolour quickly.
If this is the case and the teeth you want help with from your cosmetic dentist in Southampton are your front biting teeth, then there is an alternative to veneers.
First a bit on veneers
Veneers are great cover-ups, encasing the entire front of a tooth in durable porcelain than can last for over a decade if well cared for, but attaching them means taking a thin layer of enamel off the tooth. This is done in order to make sure the veneered tooth lies flush with its neighbours, but also to give the dental adhesive a good surface to bond to. Its means your natural tooth is never the same again.
And now onto cosmetic bonding
When you have cosmetic bonding instead of veneers, no preparation of your enamel is necessary. The composite resin, which your cosmetic dentist in Southampton will use, will be colour-matched to your surrounding teeth. The resin will mould over your teeth to create a new surface adheres straight on to the enamel. This material is similar to that used for white fillings. Your dentist uses it like sculpture clay or putty, shaping it over your teeth and then hardening it with a UV lamp. Once it has been hardened your dentist can continue to sculpt it until it looks just like the teeth surrounding it, and also fits in with your natural bite.
Once you and the dentist are both happy with your composite bonded tooth, it can be polished so that it reflects the light like a natural tooth. As long as you don’t do crazy things, like bite off beer bottle tops, with this new tooth, it can last for years.
