Having a healthy and beautiful smile can help boost your confidence and improve your bite. But when chips, gaps, and discoloration reduce your smile’s natural appearance, it’s easy to feel nervous or even embarrassed to show off your teeth. With tooth bonding in Oxnard, CA, your dentist can help fix minor imperfections in your smile. Unlike veneers, tooth bonding is less invasive and can be done entirely in the dental office, which means you’re not waiting on work from a lab. However, dental bonding isn’t always a replacement for veneers.
Veneers Vs. Tooth Bonding in Oxnard, CA: What’s the Difference?
While both help restore the strength of your bite and enhance the natural beauty of your smile, tooth bonding and veneers are vastly different treatment options.
Tooth Bonding
When you get tooth bonding, your dentist uses a small amount of composite material (the same tooth-colored material often used to fill cavities) to make minor adjustments to a few teeth here or there. These adjustments can fix imperfections such as:
- Small chips
- Light discoloration
- Minor gaps
- Slight misalignment
Veneers
Conversely, veneers are often made out of porcelain, providing additional strength and durability to your teeth. Dentists will send an impression of your mouth and a color match plan to a dental lab where the veneers are manufactured. Veneers fix the same kinds of imperfections and tooth bonding but on a much broader scale.
The main difference between a tooth bonding appointment and a veneer appointment is the time. With tooth bonding, you can complete your treatment all in one sitting. Your dentist will remove a small amount of the host tooth to make room for the composite and will then fill and shape it right then and there.
Veneers, however, take more time. First, the dentist will remove parts of the host teeth to make room for the veneers. They’ll then take impressions and create a temporary set of veneers in-office out of composite material. You’ll have the temporary veneers on while the lab makes your permanent veneers. After a few weeks, you’ll have to return to get your temporary veneers removed and your permanents applied.
Can’t Decide Between Veneers or Tooth Bonding?
If you’re struggling with confidence in your smile, veneers or tooth bonding in Oxnard, CA, could be the solution. Whether you have misaligned teeth, discolored teeth, gaps, or chips, Dr. Georgia Haddad can help. Contact Beach Cities Dental Group at (805) 312-9164 to schedule your consultation. Dr. Haddad will examine your teeth, assess your bite, and help you determine whether teeth bonding or veneers are the right option for you. While tooth bonding can help fix minor imperfections in your bite, it can’t always replace the need for veneers in more complex cases.