Bonding

In kid words

Bonding is a little bit of tooth glue that fixes little chips and makes your tooth look whole again. The dentist shapes it right onto your tooth and shines a special light on it to make it hard. When it's finished, your tooth feels smooth again, almost like the chip was never there.

The parent version

Bonding is a tooth-colored composite material that is shaped directly onto a tooth and then hardened, often used for small chips and minor repairs. It is applied to the tooth's surface rather than replacing the tooth itself, and it is shaped to blend in with the color of the teeth around it.

Whether bonding fits a particular chip depends on the size and location of the damage, and that is a call your pediatric dentist makes after actually looking at the tooth. Some repairs are well suited to bonding, and others call for a different approach.

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Where you might hear it at our office

A chipped tooth is usually what brings this word up in conversation. Our restorative dentistry is built around tooth-colored repairs that preserve healthy tooth structure, the same idea behind bonding, fixing what is damaged without taking more of the tooth than necessary. Whether bonding is the right approach for a particular chip is something your pediatric dentist decides after seeing it in person.

The rest of a visit's vocabulary, and plenty of other words besides, live in the dictionary.

Related words

Composite. Filling. Enamel.

Parents ask us

Is bonding the same thing as a filling?

They are related but not identical. Both often use the same tooth-colored composite material. A filling typically replaces the part of a tooth affected by a cavity, while bonding is generally used to reshape or repair a chip or gap. Your pediatric dentist can explain which term fits your child's specific repair.

Is bonding uncomfortable for kids?

That depends on the child and the repair. Every option is explained before anything begins, so ask your pediatric dentist what your child can expect at that visit.

How long does bonding last?

That varies from child to child and depends on things like where the repair sits and how it is cared for at home. Your pediatric dentist can give you a better sense of what to expect for your child's specific repair.

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