Maintaining healthy teeth and gums is what oral health is all about, and when it comes to the appearance of teeth, it’s easy to fall for the idea that they must be as white as possible to be healthy. Your natural tooth color boils down to the tones of your enamel (a transparent white) and the light yellow of the dentin located just underneath.
When various issues, such as stains, oral disease, or damage, change the color or shape of your teeth, they can lead to more serious oral problems, which is where cosmetic dental treatments like dental bonding and lumineers can be useful. Both improve how your teeth look, but which is the better option for your needs?
Dr. Adam Nusblatt and his experienced team at Nusblatt Dental help the residents of East Village, Manhattan, New York, with many cosmetic dental issues, including offering both dental bonding and lumineers.
To manage issues with tooth discoloration, chips, cracks, and oddly shaped teeth, dental bonding uses a composite resin to fill and cover areas that need it to give teeth a more natural appearance. The whole process can take up to an hour per tooth.
The process starts with getting the resin shade that best matches your tooth color, then roughening the surface of the selected tooth before applying the resin. Next, a liquid is applied to help the resin stick better to the tooth, then the resin is molded and shaped into the desired form. After that, the resin gets exposed to a special light to cure it, then it’s polished.
Lumineers are a type of veneer, a ceramic coating that covers teeth to hide imperfections, and are often referred to as ‘no-prep veneers,’ as they’re thinner than the traditional shells placed on teeth to improve appearance. They’re made from a cerinate feldspathic pressable porcelain about as thin as a contact lens (0.3mm).
This allows them to be used without grinding or reducing teeth before putting them on, and with the right amount of care can last for years.
These cosmetic options both achieve better-looking teeth, but the way they're applied leads to different advantages and disadvantages:
Either option helps your teeth look better with minimal preparation, such as grinding, and both are inexpensive ways to get results. However, if your problem is with misshapen or chipped teeth, dental bonding is more flexible in how it's applied without fully covering teeth.
With that flexibility, however, comes limitations for dental bonding as an overall option. This method is for shorter-term problems, and you can’t bite down as hard on the teeth treated by them. It can chip much more easily, and it’s also not as stain-resistant as lumineers or other types of veneers.
Dental bonding and lumineers can make a difference in your smile, with bonding being more flexible in short-term applications and lumineers offering better long-term results. To find out which treatment option best suits your needs, make an appointment with Dr. Nusblatt and the Nusblatt Dental team today.
