So this gentleman is not ready to crown his teeth, but there is a large fracture. It doesn’t hurt, but esthetically it looks less than ideal. He’d like a temporary ‘fix’ until we can crown it (which, again, he is not ready to do right now). What to do???
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??
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
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 here’s the final result, only a few minutes later. Look how nicely the shade of the filling blends with his tooth color. And the little redness at the gumline is from finishing and polishing the filling in this area and should heal uneventfully within a few short days.
This is a quicky, but shows how nice a little bonding can make a big change. These two teeth obviously have cavities at the gumline:
This pretty patient had been very happy with the crowns on her front teeth for MANY years. But recently they started to show signs of aging, and we decided it was time to replace them. When you look closely, they seem to be angled slightly to one side and there are spaces that have developed between them.
We resurfaced the bonding on her lateral incisor, leaving the existing bonding on her canine tooth (That will be resurfaced later). The change was dramatic. It was an easy fix and got this young lady off to college with a new, brighter smile. A few years from now we’ll consider some conservative veneers.
But, when the tooth is opened up, look what’s inside:
This was NOT evident when you looked at the tooth (see below) and was only found with an x-ray.
So remember where we started? The original teeth were thin, worn, and discolored.
And, with the proper planning and great teamwork, we get to here:
