Composite Bonding
& Tooth Filling
White tooth bonding in London, Central London, Knightsbridge – Kensington and Chelsea.

What is composite bonding, also known as tooth-coloured filling or tooth bonding?

When a tooth needs to be restored, there is always an ideal restorative filling material which could adequately replace the lost original tooth substance. The previously most-used filling material, which was successfully used for over 100 years, is amalgam, a silver/grey metallic material. It was easy and fast to apply and lasted for a long time. Some patients and dentists are concerned about amalgam because of its mercury content, although the general consensus is that it is safe to use!

White tooth fillings or cosmetic fillings have been used for 5 decades for front teeth, while there have been significant developments in composite bonding and tooth bonding for tooth-coloured fillings used in the back teeth. Tooth-coloured filling materials are essentially polymers strengthened with ceramics, which could be implemented as an alternative to amalgam fillings in many situations.

When do you require composite bonding?

Composite bonding, also known as dental bonding, is the most conservative, effective and affordable cosmetic approach to a smile makeover, which improves the shade and form of your teeth to a brighter, more harmonic smile.

Composite bonding is designed to restore chipped, cracked, crooked, small, misaligned, and discoloured or stained teeth.

Composite bonding treatment procedure

At London specialist dentists, we usually spend one session of 30 minutes to perform the non-invasive and safe composite bonding procedure, which is pain-free and requires no drilling, hence no injection. In some instances, the whole facial aspect, known as a composite veneer, could be covered to rectify the tooth shape and symmetry.

Using a tooth-coloured resin, composite bonding is a safe and reversible restorative approach that can transform your smile. As the resin composite colour blends into the underlying tooth substance, the aesthetic outcome could be very natural and impressive.

In order to restore your tooth and improve the aesthetically disturbing smile line in the safest way, and to ensure a perfect cosmetic appearance, the following steps should be taken:

Smile Assessment: The texture, hue, colour, shade and shape of your teeth will be assessed by your cosmetic dentist at London specialist dentists to achieve the best smile!

Preparatory stage: Prior to any restorative work, all gum inflammation and bleeding should be treated by our hygienist to avoid contamination and pigmentation of the composite resin material and interference with the bonding procedure.

Placing the Composite: On the day of your treatment, tooth decay should be removed, and your teeth will be refreshed and reshaped without shaving your natural teeth. An appropriate composite material and consistency will be carefully applied by your dentist at London specialist dentists with the highest artistic and technical skills.

Confident Smile: Once you are pleased with the appearance of your new smile, then the restoration will be fine-contoured, smoothed out and polished to reach a natural and glossy surface.

How does their colour compare with natural teeth?

Composite or cosmetic fillings could closely match the colour of all teeth to make them look natural and cosmetically acceptable to the patients, particularly when restoring the front teeth. They are bonded to the teeth with adhesives or bonding agents to offer enhanced durability. They are also successfully used to restore when small fillings are required in back teeth, offering the advantage of requiring minimally invasive preparation by way of less tooth substance removal during cavity preparation.

Cosmetic fillings and composite bonding usually take longer, are more operatively sensitive, and are prone to moisture contamination during binding and placement. They are also more expensive than the corresponding amalgam filling. Usually, the dentist will advise the patients as to which material and technique would be most suitable in each clinical case scenario.

What are the benefits of composite bonding?

The new generation of cosmetic fillings includes the most sophisticated composite bonding system in terms of durability, flexural and compression strength, surface abrasion resistance, and dimensional and colour stability. They offer different grades of hue, colour and shade, translucency, and light diffraction (trans-illumination). On the other hand, it is important that clinicians obtain a high level of clinical experience and expertise in holistic and non-invasive cosmetic dentistry when implementing composite bonding.

Are there any disadvantages to composite bonding?

Tooth-coloured fillings are polymers that are prone to wearing more quickly. The old generation of white fillings is not sufficiently resistant to abrasion in the posterior region, especially when composite bonding the large tooth filling requires more frequent replacement.

The other problem was a tendency to white-filling material discolouration, although polishing or resurfacing them was an option in most cases. The old generation of composite bonding was often used to cause post-operative tooth sensitivity as a result of high polymerisation contraction the larger the fillings were.

FAQ – What do patients usually ask about composite bonding?

Composite Bonding Case Studies

See our tooth bonding before and after photos from our happy patients.