60+ Years Experience
Providing dental care in London for over 60 years
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Spread the cost of your treatment with interest-free payments
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Located in the heart of London with excellent transport links
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What can composite bonding in London do for you?
Is one or more of your natural teeth chipped or slightly misshapen? Do you have gaps between your teeth and don’t like how they look when you smile?
Issues like this can not only dent your self-esteem, but can also make it harder to bite food safely and increase the risk of developing tooth decay.
Even if options like braces for respacing teeth or veneers to disguise imperfections aren’t suitable or desirable, there is still a solution available to fix these problems – composite bonding.
Also known as tooth bonding or dental bonding, this involves bonding a resin composite material to the tooth to achieve a uniform shape and colour, covering chips, cracks, and uneven edges.
Composite bonding is a fast and affordable cosmetic dentistry solution to achieve more aesthetically pleasing teeth and a symmetrical smile – capable of reshaping jagged edges, filling in gaps or chips, and even lengthening small teeth without surgery.
Non-invasive and cost-effective, this treatment is the ideal way to fix minor cosmetic flaws with your teeth and give yourself a confident smile, and there’s no better place to get composite bonding in London than The Dental Centre.
How does composite bonding work?
The composite bonding procedure involves minimal preparation of the tooth surface, application of resin composite layers, and curing the resin under a UV light.
Unlike crowns or regular veneers, the composite can be adhered to teeth without drilling, making it suitable even for nervous patients. This process typically uses an etchant gel instead to lightly prepare the surface for bonding.
The dentist then carefully moulds the resin to the tooth by hand, sculpting it to the shape and size you want. This resin will be colour-matched to your teeth to blend in and look completely natural.
When you are happy with its appearance, the composite resin will be hardened under UV light to form a secure bond with the tooth underneath, and the dentist will gently buff the cured resin to match the level of shine on your other teeth.
After the initial consultation, where your teeth are assessed and you select your composite bonding style and shade, the actual composite bonding process can be completed in one appointment – so you could leave The Dental Centre with a new smile in as little as 1 hour.
Composite bonding is a simple and efficient way to improve your smile, and the semi-permanent resin should last for several years if you follow your dentist’s instructions to take care of it well.
Who is suitable for composite bonding?
Your suitability for composite bonding depends on the condition of your teeth and what you are trying to achieve by applying composite resin to a tooth or several teeth, as it has its limitations.
This cosmetic procedure is generally suitable for the front teeth if you want to disguise small cracks, chips, uneven surfaces or edges, or severe discolouration spots – where covering the whole tooth isn’t necessary.
As a quick and cost-effective way of achieving the appearance of an undamaged uniform tooth with minimal preparation, dental bonding is a great choice for patients with minor cosmetic flaws who want a fast and affordable solution without committing to permanent changes.
It’s a more economical form of cosmetic dentistry compared to more complex and costlier alternatives like veneers or crowns, appealing to patients who are nervous about invasive dental procedures or concerned about removing too much enamel. It’s also perfect for those who may need to improve their smile aesthetics in a short timeframe for an upcoming event or special occasion.
If you don’t think extensive cosmetic dental work is right for you when tooth bonding could give you the look you want, you can discuss this with our dentist when you attend a consultation for composite bonding in London.
At The Dental Centre, we provide composite bonding treatments for suitable patients who come to us from both inside and outside of London, including UCL students or faculty members, so don’t hesitate to get in touch and find out whether you are an eligible candidate for this procedure.
When is composite bonding not recommended?
In some cases, if you do not have good oral health or otherwise healthy teeth, our dentists may deem you an unsuitable candidate for dental bonding at this time – and will instead recommend more appropriate treatments to address the issues you are having with your teeth.
For example, you cannot have composite or any kind of veneers applied if you have active gum disease or untreated tooth decay. If a tooth is more seriously cracked, chipped, or worn, this can compromise its structural integrity, so a dentist may advise fitting a crown.
Sometimes, you might think you need tooth bonding to disguise dark staining, but it could be possible to lift the staining with air polishing and professional whitening instead.
At the other end of the scale, you might consider dental bonding as a fast fix for problems like a crooked tooth or gaps between teeth, but if there is a problem with your bite and the positioning of your teeth, this may need to be corrected with longer-term orthodontics first.
Additionally, getting composite bonding comes with a commitment to taking good care of your treated teeth – e.g. improving your oral hygiene, dropping bad habits like smoking or biting your nails, and avoiding pigmented food and drinks that can stain the composite resin.
This is why it’s so important to speak with a qualified dentist first, who can assess your dental situation and lifestyle and discuss your goals to help you understand which treatment path would be the best fit for you.
Composite bonding vs Composite veneers
If you’re looking for an affordable alternative to traditional dental veneers – which require shaving down the tooth surface to apply a thin (typically porcelain) shell over the top – then composite bonding could be the ideal solution for correcting cosmetic flaws.
Composite bonding is used to repair worn or uneven tooth edges to make them smooth and straight again, restoring an even bite. Composite veneers use the resin to cover the visible surface of the tooth, not just the edges, creating a more drastic aesthetic change.
Unlike conventional veneers, composite veneers require less preparation of the tooth, while achieving a similar finish that transforms the tooth and disguises discolouration. They are more cost-effective when treatment is required for multiple teeth.
Whether composite bonding or composite veneers is the better option for you depends on the number of affected teeth, their condition, and the extent of reshaping or recolouring you are hoping to achieve. This will all be discussed when you attend a composite bonding consultation at The Dental Centre.
Contact us for composite bonding in London
If you are unhappy with teeth that are discoloured, fractured, jagged, or too short, then you’re in the right place to find the best cosmetic dental treatment to improve the appearance of your teeth.
Whether you are a suitable candidate for composite bonding, and which type of bonding would be most appropriate for you, both depend on various factors – so you should arrange a consultation with one of our dentists to discuss your options.
Our professional yet friendly team take pride in helping our patients to make fully informed decisions on their dental treatment, ensuring that each patient achieves the smile they want that meets their needs without exceeding their budget.
To book a consultation for composite bonding in London or to find out more about our treatments and payment plans, please call 020 7380 0034 or email [email protected].
Alternatively, scroll down to submit your details through the contact form on this page, and we will be in touch as soon as possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
For patients who want a fast solution to a chipped, discoloured, or otherwise cosmetically flawed tooth, composite bonding is ideal.
This streamlined procedure can be completed in just two appointments, which could take as little as an hour. The first will be your consultation, when our dentist will assess your teeth and plan the best composite bonding design to achieve your desired result, including the colour you’re looking for.
The second appointment will be the procedure itself. Our dentist will lightly prepare the tooth surface and mould the composite material, which has been pre-prepared in your chosen shade to match your teeth – this is typically done by hand.
When you’re happy with the moulding, the dentist will cure the composite material, make sure it’s bonded securely, and polish it a little for a naturally shiny look.
Depending on advice from your dentist once the procedure is complete, you could walk out with your new smile and be eating as normal just a few hours later.
In cosmetic dentistry, composite bonding is typically used to restore missing parts of chipped teeth around the edges, fill in small gaps between teeth, or cover severely discoloured tooth surfaces.
While composite material can be used to ‘reshape’ a tooth – for example, making small or narrow teeth look more uniform by making them slightly larger or wider, or making the corners more rounded or square to match other teeth – it’s not always advisable to try to reshape a crooked tooth.
Composite bonding technically can be used to make a crooked tooth appear straighter, but in cases where a crooked tooth overlaps other teeth, the composite may not be able to disguise this. It also won’t correct a misaligned bite, which can cause the crooked tooth edge and any material covering it to wear down faster.
If you have one or more crooked teeth and are considering composite bonding for a fast fix, we recommend booking a consultation at The Dental Centre. Our dentists can examine your teeth and explain whether this is possible or alternative treatment, such as orthodontics, would be a better recommendation.
How long composite bonding lasts depends on several factors, including where it is applied and how well you take care of your teeth. Even with the best quality workmanship, which you can always expect at The Dental Centre, it is only semi-permanent.
As long as you take good care of your teeth with proper oral hygiene, and avoid any accidents, your composite bonding could last for 3–8 years on average. It’s likely to need touch-ups after around 4 years and replacing by 10 years.
Should your composite bonding become discoloured, wear down, or accidentally chip, you should come back to the dentist to ensure it is restored as quickly as possible.
If you want to improve the longevity of your composite bonding, there are a few lifestyle changes you can make. These include avoiding eating or drinking things that can cause stains, not biting hard foods or objects, and quitting smoking.
It also helps to keep up with regular routine check-ups with your dentist, as they can identify potential issues with the composite bonding before any serious problems can develop.
As the material used for composite bonding is not organic or porous, it cannot be whitened with a bleaching agent the way natural enamel can. If you attempt to whiten teeth with composite bonding, it will result in an unevenly coloured smile.
That’s not to say that you can’t get your teeth whitened if you are planning on getting composite bonding as well. It just means you must get teeth whitening done first, so the dentist can match the composite material to the new shade of white.
As your natural teeth discolour over time, you can return for top-ups so that they continue to match the colour of the composite.
If you’re concerned about parts of your tooth being different colours with edge bonding, you could enquire about composite veneers instead, as these can cover the visible surface of the tooth to the gum line, so it will all be one colour.
