3 Oral Health Tips To Protect A New Dental Bond

A dental bond is a resin artificial tooth front that can cover a wide range of cosmetic dentistry issues. The bond is created from a flexible resin material that your dentist can shape directly onto the natural tooth to cover staining, chipping, or size issues. The resin is then hardened into place with a natural light. Bonds are created to be fairly resilient but there are some oral health tips you can use to help protect your new dental bond.

Gentle Oral Products

Resin is durable but not as strong as natural teeth or the porcelain of a dental veneer. You want to use oral healthcare products that are gentle and don't risk eroding the surface or bonding material of the dental bond.

Use a toothbrush with soft bristles and a toothpaste made for sensitive teeth or labeled as having a gentle formula. You don't want toothpaste advertised as offering an extra deep clean or whitening abilities because both of those formulations include at least one abrasive chemical to produce those results.

Regular floss is advisable and you only need to use the same gentle hand that you should use between natural teeth. Sharp jerking movements with floss can cause between teeth erosion as well as damage your underlying gum structure.

No Hard Chewing

Resin bonds are meant to withstand standard chewing and the related bite force. The less force the bond has to face, however, will help extend the lifespan of the bond.

If you are eating a hard food such as an apple, try to leave the task of biting into the apple to your natural teeth. You can then chew with your bonded tooth, if necessary, which will involve less bite force than the initial chomp.

Minimize any unnecessary or mindless chewing such as eating the ice at the bottom of your cup or chewing on the end of a pen. This mindless chewing can involve your bonded tooth without you even realizing it is happening and add extra repetitive force to the resin.

Avoid Staining Foods and Drinks

Porcelain veneers are stain resistant, but the resin material on bonds does not share that luxury. Resin can stain as easily as natural teeth but can't be whitened using special gels and lasers in the same way as the natural teeth. So you want to keep any staining from happening so that you don't have to replace the resin bond.

Avoid wine, coffee, tea, and nicotine as much as possible. Brush your teeth immediately after exposure if you can't avoid those items entirely. Contact a dentist like Richard L. Myers, DDS for more tips.