Sometimes people are not ready to restore their front teeth. There might be a need, whether from fractures, wear, large fillings….any number of reasons. But maybe they just are not psychologically or financially in a position to really ‘fix’ their teeth. Here’s a quick example: This tooth fractured, but the gentleman does not want to crown his front teeth just yet. So….what to do??
As you can tell, I obviously did not think these teeth were in need of veneers. A little bonding and a few minutes later they looked like new! I told the patient that she might EVENTUALLY need more definitive restorations (veneers) but for now the bonding was the easiest, least invasive, least expensive alternative. She was thrilled with the results!
At what point does a tooth need a veneer? We’ll discuss the criteria I use at a later date, but this nice young lady was told she needed veneers on these teeth. Now I’ll admit the teeth are not too pretty with the chipped and broken edges, but does it REALLY require veneers to properly restore them???
Chipped, broken teeth-before bonding
And one last look at our before-and-after of the happy patient:
Prior to orthodontics and bonding--full face
After the bonding and ortho--full face
Just took this photo recently of one happy lady. Doesn’t she have a gorgeous smile??!! I’ll bet you can’t tell what we did to improve it….
Portrait photo
So were able to conservatively repair this tooth in a few short minutes and get a great result just in time for this patient to head overseas for an extended trip. And no one will be able to tell she’s had anything done!
Broken tooth
Repaired tooth
This tooth has been fractured for MANY years. The patient never really did anything about it, but with a bit more of it breaking recently, she wanted me to ’smooth it out’. I thought the better idea was to replace the missing tooth structure.
Broken tooth
This tooth needed to look better. We ruled out a crown or veneer, and rebonding the edge was the most conservative treatment. The other teeth have some dramatic characterization so this was a tricky procedure. But, when we finished, the patient was excited about the final result.
After new bonding
And this repaired tooth will look good and last for many years to come….as long he keeps away from wakeboards!!
Repaired tooth
Cracked tooth
A fun day of boating led to this cracked tooth. There was no hot, cold, or bite sensitivity so it became and esthetic issue. What was the best course of action to quickly repair this tooth?
