I had dental bonding done on my front two teeth. It has only been one week and they are already picking up stains. I do drink coffee, but my dentist never told me that I couldn’t. If I am able to get these whitened, will I need to avoid coffee from now on?
Stacey
Dear Stacey,
Even though dental bonding is susceptible to staining, it should not be staining after just one week. Teeth whitening does not work on dental work, such as bonding, dental crowns, or porcelain veneers. It only works on natural tooth structure. However, there is a way to fix this.
It sounds like you went to a nice, general family dentist. Some of them have invested in cosmetic dentistry training and some have not. This has a big impact on the results and effectiveness of your cosmetic work. Dental bonding is made from composite material. That is a mixture of plastic resin and inorganic fillers, like silica, quartz, and glass. It is the difference in the fillers that I think is the issue with your bonding.
Types of Dental Bonding Fillers
All of these fillers come in a variety of sizes with difference properties to them. Hybrid fillers are very strong, but their size precludes them from being polished to a high shine. Microfills can be polished to a high luster that even mimics your tooth enamel, but they are not very strong. The new nanofill particles claim to do both, but they are so new that the jury is still out on those.
Dentists who do not do a lot of cosmetic work tend to only stock the hybrid composites. This is because they’ll mostly use them in fillings where esthetics do not matter as much, but strength does. Cosmetic dentists will stock a large variety of composites. With dental bonding done for esthetic reasons, they will use a hybrid on the interior of the tooth for the strength, but then top it with a microfill that they can polish to a high luster.
This is what your dentist needs to do for your dental bonding. You can show him this post to help him know what to do to fix this. One other thing I need to mention. If this bonding is done on the entire surface of your teeth, you will be better off with porcelain veneers. Bonding is meant for small repairs such as chips or gaps.
The porcelain veneers will last years longer and are more stain resistant. In fact, they are more stain resistant than even your natural teeth.
This blog is brought to you by Baton Rouge Dentist Dr. Steven Collins.