How to close a gap between my front teeth.

May I ask you a question about bonding? When I was about 13 I had my top two front teeth bonded to close the gap in my front teeth as I hated it. I am now 33 still have it bonded it has chipped slightly but has worn very well. However my dentist never closed the gap fully so I still hate my teeth.

I want to go to a cosmetic dentist and get a second opinion on what to do next as my dentist wants to do veneers which I am a bit scared to have done. I just would like the bonding redone but my dentist says that it might not rebond as well the second time around. Is he right? Should I put up with the smaller gap and old bonding as I am scared of opening a can of worms and having it redone then it doesnt bond as well? What do you think?
- Joanne from the U.K.

Joanne,
It’s funny, but when dentists aren’t very good at direct dental bonding, they come up with all kinds of reasons why bonding won’t work for certain situations. But closing a gap between two front teeth is best done, in my opinion, by direct bonding.

If the gap is large, there can be a problem in making them look natural, so it can be advisable to do something besides the direct bonding, like re-shaping the adjacent teeth in various ways to make the lateral incisors a little larger or at least to appear larger, to balance out the sizes of all the front teeth. But for a basic “gap,” you want direct bonding.

The fact that you have old bonding on your front teeth doesn’t matter. It may help to know that even porcelain veneers have to be bonded - it is the same chemical process to bond porcelain or to bond composite. If you can bond one, you can bond the other. So if you can fix the gap with porcelain veneers, you can fix it with direct bonding. The difficulty with direct bonding is that it requires artistic ability since it is done freehand.

So you need to go to a dentist who is an artist to have this done - a dentist who is passionate about cosmetic dentistry.

Please visit the website of Seattle cosmetic dentist Dr. Brian McKay

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