What Is Composite Bonding?

Composite bonding is a modern way to restore teeth, either for cosmetic reasons, or to build up tooth structure that has been lost.

It involves bonding a tooth coloured resin material to existing teeth to reshape them or improve their colour.

We bond on very strongly the resin material, polish it up, and this will last for many years.

Composite bonding is appropriate for pretty much every patient.

Bonding is not necessary, it is purely a cosmetic treatment. Bonding does not usually require the dentist to remove any part of your tooth.

It is composite material that is glued to your teeth to give them your preferred shape or colour.

View our cosmetic smile gallery for more before and afters!

Karen Byrne recently had composite bonding at our Dublin clinic and has been kind enough to talk us through her experience.

Karen had some intitial concerns about the composite bonding treatment, such as:

• Will there be any side effects?
• Will I need an anaesthetic?

Dr. Niall Vallely explained everything and made sure that Karen was comfortable to proceed. Find out more about Karen's story in the video!

The restoration will last 5-6 years before it needs to be polished up or repaired in some way.

Composite bonding is a completely pain free procedure. There is: 

• No anaesthetic required
• No drilling required
• No change to the existing tooth structure

Just polishing of the teeth, and then gently adding on the resin material and then giving that a very high grade polish at the end.

We often provide composite bonding to our patients after braces. Often when the teeth are misaligned, they can get a lot of wear and chipping especially on the front teeth.

This can be very noticeable when the teeth have been straightened. We can then build up the teeth after the braces have been removed with bonding.

This results in straight and properly shaped teeth and the results can be dramatic.

We can also provide composite bonding to damaged and discoloured teeth - especially teeth with white marks on the front (a very common problem in Ireland due to the fluoride in water). 

By removing a little of the blemish from the front of the tooth (often we don’t need anaesthetic as the blemish is usually shallow) we can restore the tooth or teeth and make them look pretty much perfect again.

We’ve seen a number of dental bonding cases in recent times that have not gone well. We're sorry to say that this is typically as a result of people going to Turkey to see a dentist for a ‘cheaper’ price.

If this is something you are thinking about doing, we would suggest that you take a moment to reflect on the following:

• If there is an issue with your teeth after your treatment abroad, you have nowhere to turn.
• Clinics in eastern Europe are not regulated by any dental bodies
• If you have a dispute with a clinic, it's up to you to resolve it
• Bear in mind that while the price of the dental work may seem affordable, you will also need to pay for flight, hotel, food and transportation

Our dentistry abroad page has videos of some of our great patients who were thinking about going abroad for dental work, but then decided to proceed with 3Dental. Find out to what they had to say.

We also encourage people who are considering going abroad for dental work to book a free consultation with us.

That way, at least you can make a more informed decision as to what your options are.

During your free consultation, we can discuss the full range of possible treatments, whether it be orthodontics, veneers (composite, porcelain or other) or dental bonding.

We often offer bonding in conjunction with tooth whitening (bleaching). This is especially popular after braces and also with wedding parties to improve their teeth before the big day. 

We usually recommend that you bleach your teeth first as it helps to see the final colour of your teeth before we add the bonding.

We can then use a perfectly matched colour of composite to improve the tooth’s appearance.

The only people that we generally don’t recommend bonding to are heavy smokers.

This is because smoking can stain up the bonding over time. We are always happy to treat smokers and will happily discuss smoking cessation programmes with them but for those who want to continue smoking we usually recommend veneers instead of bonding.

These stain less. This does not apply to vaping. People who vape can have bonding done without any problem.

Dental bonding costs €175-€300 per tooth, depending on the bonding treatment required.

Our full range of cosmetic dentistry prices can be found on our price list page.

Bonding is a treatment that we are very passionate and we have seen it transform many many patient smiles here at 3Dental Dublin, Limerick and Galway.

We have more information on this great treatment in the following articles and pages:

• 7 Things You Need To Know About Composite Bonding
• What Is Dental Bonding and How Much Does It Cost?
• And of course our Dental Bonding treatment page

Composite bonding is an affordable way to get the smile you've always dreamed of.

We've given you a sample of some before and afters pictures here, however, please also head over to our Smile Gallery and Testimonial pages to get a feel for more results that we get for our patients.

We've got clinics in Dublin, Limerick and Galway.

Get in touch today to book your free consultation :)