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You have a winning smile except for one small flaw — one of your front teeth is chipped. In functional terms the defect is insignificant: your tooth is healthy and can still do its job. But with regard to your smile that chip is like a smudge on a masterpiece painting: it stands out — and not in a good way.
The good news is you have options to repair the chip and vastly improve your appearance. One option is to bond a custom porcelain veneer to the outside of the tooth to cover the chip. But that would also mean removing a slight bit of tooth enamel so the veneer won't appear too bulky. Although not as much as with a crown, the alteration still permanently affects the tooth — it will always require a restoration of some kind.
There's another choice that doesn't involve removing any of your enamel: composite resin. This treatment is a mixture of materials with a glass-like binder in liquid form that we apply to a tooth in successive coats. As we build up the layers we can match the tooth's shape, texture and various shades of its natural color. We're able to fill in the defect and make the tooth appear as natural as possible.
Unlike porcelain restorations, composite resins don't require a dental lab or a period of weeks to prepare. We can transform your simile in our office in as little as one visit.
Composite resin isn't the answer for every tooth defect. Teeth that have become worn, fractured or have undergone a root canal treatment are best treated with a porcelain restoration such as a veneer or crown. But where the defect is relatively minor, composite resin may be the answer.
To learn if you can benefit from a composite resin restoration, you'll need to undergo a dental exam. If we determine you're a candidate, we can use this state-of-the-art dental material to make your teeth look flawless.
If you would like more information on composite resins, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Artistic Repair of Front Teeth with Composite Resin.”