Dr Tom Farley

Final Ortho bonding result

And so to review…..we started with two very small lateral incisors.

Small laterals before ortho and bonding

Final Ortho Bonding

Ultimately we decided to go with the first discussed option…..leaving ideal spaces and then bonding them closed.  Now I have to warn you—-the orthodontist has to be VERY good for this work.   If not, you will end with two teeth that do not match in size or proportion. Here’s the first tooth, before and after:

Small tooth with spaces before bonding

Tooth after bonding to close spaces and correct the size

Treatment plan for bonding

We (the orthodontist and myself) discussed our two options.

1. Move the lateral incisors into the middle of the spaces, bond the teeth to make them ideal for size and proportion, finish the orthodontics.

2. Complete the ortho, leaving ideal spacing for the laterals, THEN bond the teeth after the orthodontics is finished.

Both are fairly difficult.  We’ll talk about them in separate posts.

Bonding small laterals

Your discussion should revolve around the ultimate goal for these teeth.  If the size discrepancy is small, then everyone may agree to simply close the spaces during the orthodontic treatment.  However, many times the size difference is too great to do this:

Finished filling

I won’t show the tooth completely cleaned out, but it turned out to have a very deep cavity.  However, after placing the filling, you can barely tell the tooth had any work at all.  It came out great!

Finished filling

Hidden cavity revealed

And only a little more, and you can REALLY see all the cavity!!

Cavity revealed

Repaired tooth

And a few minutes later, we were finished!  The patient was VERY happy with the results!

Newly repaired tooth

Broken porcelain

With the broken piece bonded into place this patient will be able to function just fine until he can get back with us to make a new crown for this tooth and the one next to it.  He was just relieved to have the tooth back together in one piece!

Bonded broken porcelain

Bonding

This tooth recently had a root canal. The specialist referred her so that we could improve the esthetics of the corner or edge. Our solutions included a veneer, a crown, or bonding. Although the tooth may need the other more invasive procedures later, we opted to try and improve the look by altering the existing bonding.

Tooth before new bonding

Fractured tooth-repaired

A few minutes later and we got this retired dentist back together.  He was pleased with the final result….and so were we!

Repaired fracture tooth