My New Dental Bonding Is Already Staining

I need some advice. I had some dental bonding done to fix a chipped tooth. I have only had the bonding for a little over three weeks. Is the problem that I drink coffee? Is there a way to get around this if it is or will I have to give up coffee? I was so excited to not have a chipped tooth.

Leslie

Dear Leslie

While it is true that dental bonding will stain much faster than porcelain veneers, three weeks is MUCH too soon. This tells me that either something major damaged your bonding or your dentist doesn’t understand how to produce stain resistant bonding.

How Can Bonding Be Damaged?

The main way that bonding can be damaged is by abrasives. Don’t let your hygienist use either a power prophy jet or acidulated fluoride on your bonding. This will damage it right away. You’ll want to be careful not use any over the counter whitening toothpastes.

These don’t actually whiten your teeth. Instead, they use abrasives to scrub off stains and make them look whiter. The problem with that is now your teeth (and your bonding) will now pick up stains much faster.

The Type of Filler Makes a Difference

If your dental bonding was done by a basic family dentist who does not have extensive cosmetic dental training. Dental bonding is created with a blend of a plastic resin with inorganic fillers. There a different type of fillers and that makes a difference in the appearance of your bonding.

Hybrid composites have larger particles. This makes them stronger, but it is harder to get a high shine using them. Then there are Microfills. These use very small particles that can be polished to a high luster which mimics tooth enamel. They are not as strong as the hybrids. There are new nanofills that claim to have both the strength of hybrids with the luster capability of Microfills.

General family dentists, who don’t do a lot of regular cosmetic work, will stock all-purpose composite materials, which tend to be the high strength hybrids because they’re mostly using them for fillings. An expert cosmetic dentist will stock a wider variety. They will start with the interior of the restoration using a strong hybrid, but then apply a layer of Microfill to the surface.

Additionally, they know how to mimic the variations that you’d find in your natural teeth that have a combination of opacity with translucency, along with color gradations.

The bottom line here is that your dental bonding should not be staining this quickly. Something is off. My suggestion is that you return to your dentist and have him repair this.

This blog is brought to you by the gentle dentists of Lafayette, LA, Drs. Foreman and Thimmesch.