Composite Bonding Care
The habits that keep bonding bright, the ones that break it, what to do about a chip, and the signs that a refresh is due.
How Should You Care for Composite Bonding?
Treat bonded teeth much as you treat your own, with a few adjustments. Use a non-abrasive fluoride toothpaste twice a day, clean between the teeth, swill with water after coffee, tea or red wine, and never use the bonded edges on nails, pens or packaging. Sleep in a retainer or night guard, and ask for the composite to be polished at each hygiene visit. With that routine, bonding typically goes three to five years before it needs refreshing, and often longer. A chipped corner is rarely a disaster: at Peninsula Dentists on Greenwich Peninsula, most chips are rebuilt in a single short appointment.
The First 48 Hours
Composite hardens under the curing light while you are still in the chair, so there is nothing to wait for: you can eat and drink as soon as you leave. We do suggest a gentle start. For the first two days, hold back on anything deeply coloured, such as espresso, red wine or turmeric, and avoid biting into anything hard or crusty with the new edges until they feel like your own.
Your tongue will probably explore the new shapes for a day or so. That awareness fades quickly. What should not be ignored is a bite that feels uneven, or a tooth that seems to touch first when you close. Let us know, because a small adjustment puts it right in minutes. Dr Pei reviews every bonding case about a fortnight later, checks how the teeth meet and gives the composite its final high polish.
Daily Cleaning
The routine is the one you already know, with a handful of adjustments that protect the surface of the composite.
- Brush morning and night with a soft or medium brush and a fluoride toothpaste that is low in abrasives. Electric brushes are fine; the mistake is pressing hard, not the brush itself.
- Leave whitening toothpastes on the shelf. The grit that scrubs stain from enamel also takes the gloss off composite.
- Floss or use interdental brushes daily. Draw floss out sideways through the contact instead of pulling it back up, which can catch the margin of the bonding.
- Swill with water after coffee, tea or wine.
- Keep up your dental examinations and hygiene visits, where the composite is checked and repolished.
None of it takes extra time. In our experience the bonding that lasts longest belongs to the patients who simply never let the routine slip.
Chipped, Stained or Lost Its Shine?
A polish or a repair is usually a single short visit on the Peninsula.
What Discolours Composite
Composite is slightly more porous than porcelain, so it picks up colour in the same way natural enamel does, only a little faster. The usual suspects are tea, coffee, red wine, curry and turmeric, berries, and above all smoking, which can visibly yellow composite within a few months.
You do not need to cut any of these out of your life. Water after a drink, a straw for cold dark drinks, and a rinse after a curry all help. Most of what builds up sits on the surface and lifts at a hygiene visit, where Airflow air polishing uses warm water, air and a fine powder to clean composite without scratching it. Stain that has soaked in, or a dark line creeping along the margin where composite meets tooth, is different: that tells us the surface layer is due to be refreshed.
Things Not to Do
The edges of bonding are thin by design, and a sudden point load on a thin edge is how chips happen. Almost every chip we repair can be traced to one of these:
- Nail biting, or chewing pen lids and pencils
- Tearing open packets, tags or bottle tops with the front teeth
- Crunching ice or boiled sweets
- Biting straight through a whole apple, a baguette crust or corn on the cob. Slice it first
Anyone who plays rugby, hockey or boxing should wear a custom sports mouthguard, from £135,2 which shields the bonding along with the teeth underneath. The simplest rule covers everything else: teeth are for eating, not for opening things.
Sleep in a Retainer or Night Guard
Night-time is when bonding is most at risk, because clenching and grinding happen without you knowing. A night guard absorbs that force so the composite edges are not slowly ground down or snapped. A retainer does a second job as well: it holds your teeth in the position the bonding was designed around. That matters most after Invisalign or braces, since teeth have a habit of drifting back towards where they started.
If Invisalign with us came first, the Vivera retainers in your package already do both jobs when worn at night. Otherwise a custom night guard is from £135 and an Essix retainer for one arch is £214,2 and Dr Pei will tell you at your review which suits you. Tell us if you wake with an aching jaw, see flattened edges on your teeth, or have been told you grind, because unprotected grinding is the single most common reason bonding fails sooner than it should. Our teeth grinding guide covers the signs.
Repolishing at Hygiene Visits
A professional polish is the quickest way to make bonding look new again, and it gives us a chance to spot a worn or roughened edge before it becomes a chip. Hygiene at Peninsula Dentists is with Stefanie Goodall, our dental hygienist, and you can book straight in with her without seeing a dentist first. A Classic Smile Clean is £99 and a Diamond Smile Clean with Airflow is £134,2 and hygiene visits are included in both of our dental plans.
Every three to six months is typical, depending on how your gums are doing. Mention which teeth are bonded when you sit down. Composite needs finer pastes and softer cups than enamel does, and the wrong abrasive takes the shine off instead of bringing it back.
If a Corner Chips
A chip is normally a quick fix. Fresh composite is bonded onto the damaged area and reshaped, without stripping and redoing the whole tooth. Keep any fragment that comes away, avoid biting on that tooth, and get in touch. A quick photo on WhatsApp to 07515 676150 lets us judge the size of the repair and book the right length of appointment, often within a day or two.
Please do not file a sharp edge down yourself with a nail file. If the edge is catching your lip or tongue, a pea of orthodontic wax from any pharmacy covers it until you are seen. A bonded tooth that is actually painful, rather than just chipped, is a different matter: call 020 8788 6688 before 9.30am and we will see you the same day. Emergency appointments are from £70,2 and you do not need to be an existing patient.
Knowing When a Refresh Is Due
Composite bonding usually lasts three to five years, and well looked-after bonding frequently goes further. The signs it is ready for attention are a surface that stays matt or rough after polishing, stain that no longer lifts, a dark line at the join between composite and tooth, and an edge that has chipped more than once or worn noticeably shorter. A refresh usually means repolishing or replacing the outer layer rather than starting from nothing.
If you would like a brighter smile at the same time, the sequence matters. Composite cannot be whitened, so we lighten your natural teeth first and then refresh the bonding to the new shade. Our guide to whitening before bonding explains the gap to leave between the two. Either way, we check bonding at every dental examination and tell you when a refresh is worthwhile, so it is not a judgement you have to make alone.
Questions
This guide explains the options in general terms. Only an examination can tell you which of them suits your own teeth.