Dental Bonding—What is It All About?

Dental bonding is a procedure used for a variety of circumstances to make teeth more aesthetically pleasing. Basically, a tooth-colored resin is applied and hardened with a special light that bonds the material to the tooth.

Why Would You Seek Dental Bonding?

As one of the easiest and most inexpensive cosmetic dental procedures, dental bonding is used to correct a variety of imperfections. These include:

• Repair of decayed, chipped or cracked teeth
• To improve appearance of discolored teeth
• Close spaces between teeth
• Make teeth look longer or change their shape
• To protect portions of tooth roots exposed when gums recede

How Bonding is Done

Your dentist will select the color of the bonding material to match your teeth. Little preparation is required except for gently abrading or roughening the surface of the teeth involved. The resin is molded or smoothed into the proper shape after which it is trimmed and polished to match the rest of the hard tooth surface. Bonding takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes per tooth.

Advantages and Drawbacks

When compared with veneers and crowns, the procedure for dental bonding removes the least amount of enamel from the tooth. In addition, unless bonding is used as a filling, anesthesia is usually not required. On the downside, the bonding material may not be as strong as regular tooth enamel, even after it hardens, so it is more prone to chipping and staining in comparison to your natural teeth or veneers and crowns.

Have Dental Anxiety? Learning the Basics About Anesthesia Will Help You Be Stress Free

It’s been over one-hundred years since local anesthesia was first introduced within the dental setting. Even better news is that today’s dentists have more options than ever, allowing them to ensure safety and comfort like never before for their patients. Furthermore, local anesthesia is widely used among dental professionals, and that is why they are well-trained to manage adverse reactions to anesthesia they provide in an emergency.

The main purpose of using local anesthesia in dentistry is to reduce discomfort and address varying levels of patient anxiety typically associated with dental procedures. Local anesthesia is applied in one of three ways: topical, injectable, and non-injectable.

Topical anesthetics are applied by swabbing special gel on the skin or inside the mouth to relieve pain after an injection or a procedure. The gel or patch consistently releases topical solutions into the soft tissues to reduce discomfort. It desensitizes the mucous membrane at the site of injection, but it does not anesthetize the deep gingiva, the tooth or the bone structure.

Injectable anesthetics make use of a syringe and needle to administer a desensitizing solution that will numb the affected surrounding area. The anesthetics help block pain signals from being sent to the brain. The type (and amount) of anesthetic is determined by the dental problem itself, the patient’s weight, his or her medical history, and any other drugs present in the patient’s system that they may take on a regular prescribed basis.

Non-injectable anesthetics are part of the new wave of pain management that is minimally invasive, but effective enough to deliver a measured amount of anesthesia to make deep cleanings or scaling and root planning procedures more comfortable. The anesthetic is delivered by using a blunt-tipped applicator that contains fast-acting topical anesthetic, and is directly applied along the affected periodontal pockets. 

With the presence of these three types of local anesthesia available to dentists today (plus the introduction of new products all the time), modern dentistry practitioners are able to offer their patients the most comfortable experience for whatever procedure they need to have done.

Fix Teeth Discoloration with Cosmetic Dentistry

Various types of cosmetic dental treatments serve to create attractive smiles, which also help to build self confidence in many people. Cosmetic dentistry has evolved over the years, allowing dental patients to undergo a variety of procedures in order to maintain natural-looking, healthy teeth.

Beautiful Smile: 4 Tips to Fight Cavities

Cavities and tooth decay are among the most common dental problems. If you want to prevent tooth decay and maintain the flawlessness of your pearly whites, you must take the necessary precautions. Here are four tips to keep your teeth in tip-top condition.

Brush at least twice a day.

According to an experienced Charlotte dentist, everyone should brush their teeth at least twice a day. If you constantly forget to brush your teeth before retiring at night, for instance, the lingering bacteria can definitely cause cavities to form.

How Do the Teeth Become Yellowish?

Having white teeth is a highly regarded quality. It signifies health, cleanliness, and draws more people, as it enhances a person’s charm. It is, therefore, not surprising that a lot of people nowadays are opting for fast and reliable teeth whitening methods to achieve such standard. To avoid yellowed or discolored teeth, however, it is important to understand what cause them.

Root Canal Treatment: Don’t Ignore These Signs

Very few dental procedures are as infamous as root canal treatments. Some people would grit their teeth and bear the pain for as long as they need to rather than undergo root canal treatment until the pain becomes unbearable. Of course, it’s a bad idea.

Root canal treatment is the only way to save a tooth root from dying due to extreme tooth decay; otherwise, the decay will spread to the surrounding teeth. Fortunately, the signs of an infected tooth root are easy to identify. If you begin to experience any of these signs, be sure to see your Charlotte dentist immediately:

Dental Veneers: Composite and Porcelain

Dental veneers can be thought of as a layer or shell of porcelain or composite that is created to be the same color of the tooth, and designed to fit over it perfectly. This is for the purpose of improving the tooth’s overall appearance as well as correcting certain conditions, such as uneven tooth alignment or spacing, discoloration, tooth enamel deterioration, chips or cracks, or unsightly fillings.