What’s the Difference Between Dental Bonding and Veneers?
If you have chipped, cracked, stained, or unshapely teeth, you might be looking for the right solution for you to fix these problems. Oftentimes, both bonding and veneers will be proposed by your dentist to solve aesthetic and functional dentition problems. Very often patients tend not to understand the difference between dental veneers and dental bonding. Both interventions have an aesthetic and functional value but the use of one or the other depends on the type of problem that your dentist and you want to solve, and you must take your particular situation into account when deciding which solution you might use.
What are dental veneers?
Dental veneers (also just called veneers) are ceramic shells that are applied to the outer surface of the teeth to address aesthetic issues such as color, shape, and misalignment. They are generally non-invasive, ultra-thin (ranging from 0.3 to 0.7 mm), and do not require a large amount of filing to prepare the tooth, thus, they preserve the natural structure of the tooth better than a crown might.
Both Dental veneers and dental bonding are recommended:
* to improve the aesthetics of the teeth (discolored tooth, small teeth, etc.)
* in case of dental crowding
* to correct diastemas- which are gaps in between teeth
The application of dental veneers (or veneers) is different that that of dental bonding and usually takes place in 3 phases: planning, preparation, actual application.
1) Planning
The first step is to consult with your dentist, who will examine your mouth and determine if dental veneers are the best fit for your needs. It is very important that there is a constant dialogue between patient and dentist and that the latter reports all the advantages but also the limitations of this type of treatment.
2) Preparation
First, your dentist will remove a layer of about 1/2 mm of enamel from the surface of the tooth. This thickness is equal to that of the casing that will later be applied to the tooth (the actual dental veneer). The operation is painless and most of the time does not require anesthesia. This is the main difference between veneers and bonding. Veneers require much for filing of the accepting tooth than bonding. Typically, with bonding, the surface of your existing tooth is roughed up a bit, but enamel is not removed.
After filing, the dentist will take an impression of the affected area and send it to the dental laboratory, where the plaster model for the veneers will be produced. It is a necessary procedure but, thanks to new materials and new techniques, it is non-invasive.
3) Application
Thus, we come to the actual application. First the affected teeth will be cleaned and polished, then special cement will be applied to the veneer and placed on the tooth. The final steps involve removing excess cement, analyzing the bite, and evaluating any adjustments to the veneers. The dentist may request a check-up about 2 weeks after the operation to check how the gums are responding to the presence of the prostheses and to examine their positioning one last time.
Dental bonding
Dental bonding is relatively inexpensive and can really help correct cosmetic problems. Rather than a specially made and fitted cap or veneer over any damaged or unsightly teeth, bonding uses a composite material that is sculpted onto the problem tooth, cured with UV light, and polished for an wonderfully aesthetically pleasing result.