Want pearly white teeth? Try cosmetic bonding
My friend Mariana’s 16-year-old daughter has a beautiful face with one major drawback. She has small teeth with a gap between her two front teeth. Her teeth did not give her a complex as a child, but when she got to her teens, she started to feel insecure as she took notice of the perfect pearly whites of the young stars in her favorite TV series.
Two years ago, Mariana noticed that her daughter’s birthday wish list always included “a better set of teeth with no gap between my two front teeth.”
Recently, she bravely told her mother that she read about the wonders of cosmetic dentistry and that she wanted to consult a cosmetic dentist. Mariana decided to give in to her teenager’s impassioned plea to fix her teeth. She knew that this would boost her self-esteem and was not just a temporary quick fix but also a fix for life. You carry your smile for the rest of your life and she wanted her daughter to be confident and have a beautiful smile. Each to her own obsession and her daughter was obsessed with fixing her teeth.
I brought mother and daughter to my cosmetic dentist at Dusit Thani Manila, Dr. Cecile Infantado. Dr. Infantado put the young daughter at ease and told her that in no time she would have the pearly whites of her dreams. Dr. Infantado recommended cosmetic or dental bonding, which is a quick and excellent way to fix structural imperfections of the teeth. She explained, “The procedure usually lasts for about two hours. Dental bonding can reshape teeth, close the gaps between the teeth, correct crooked teeth, and recolor your smile. It can also restore decayed teeth with cosmetic improvements. Basically, bonding will cover any natural flaws with a thin coating of plastic material applied to the front surface of the teeth. Then your cosmetic dentist applies a bonding material and sculpts, colors and shapes it to provide a pleasing result. A high-intensity light then hardens the plastic and the surface is finely polished. Cosmetic bonding utilizes a composite resin and is used for a variety of structural and cosmetic procedures. A very mild etching solution (phosphoric acid) is applied to your teeth to create very small crevices in the tooth’s enamel (the outer layer of the teeth). These small crevices provide a slightly rough surface that permits a durable resin to bond materials to your teeth. The resin is then placed on your tooth and high-intensity light cures the resin onto your tooth’s surface, with each individual layer of resin hardening in just minutes. When the last coat has been applied, the bonded material is then sculpted to fit your tooth and finely polished.
You may be a candidate for bonding if you have small gaps between your teeth, have chipped or cracked teeth, discolored teeth, uneven teeth, gum recession or tooth decay. The bonding material is porous, so smokers will find that their bonding will yellow eventually.
Mariana agreed to have her daughter go through the procedure and today, she has a happy teenager with a beautiful smile, looking forward to having a sweet-16 coming-out party in November.
Dr. Infantado says that cosmetic bonding prices vary, depending on the extent of the bonding you need. Interested parties may call 840-4284, 09052650889 or 867-3333 local 3415.
