If you've lived with chipped teeth for a while, you may be tired of feeling self-conscious about your smile. Even if your teeth are white and straight, chips affect your smile since they make your teeth look less than perfect. If the chips bother you then you should talk to a cosmetic dentist about the ways to restore the appearance of your teeth. Here are some treatments the dentist might suggest.

Bonding For Small Chips

Dental bonding is an ideal way to fill in small chips. If you have a single tooth or two teeth next to each other that were chipped in a fall or when you were opening something with your teeth, then bonding could be the answer if the chips are small. Bonding also works great for replacing the lost portion of the tooth if you knock out a chip and save the chipped part. Dental bonding is like tooth-colored putty that can fill in the missing area and be shaped to match the contours of your other teeth. The bonding material hardens as it cures and the color can be matched to your other teeth, so the repairs blend in. Bonding is also an easy procedure to undergo since there is no drilling involved.

Veneers To Cover Larger Chips

Veneers might work better on larger chips since a veneer fits over the entire front of the tooth. Veneers are made out of porcelain and they are color-matched to your other teeth to look natural. Veneers are very thin pieces of porcelain that adhere to your teeth with dental cement. Although they're thin, you'll still need to have some of the enamel removed from the teeth so the veneers fit well. You can have as many veneers as you need to correct the appearance of your front teeth when you want to cover chips, whiten teeth, or change the shape of the teeth.

Crowns For Capping The Teeth

If a chip is large, then the best option could be to have a crown put on the tooth. When more than one tooth has a large portion chipped off, it might be necessary to put in a bridge made of multiple crowns. A crown is a full-size artificial tooth that caps your damaged tooth. It restores the appearance of the tooth while protecting it from decay. If the root of a tooth was also affected in the incident that caused the chipping, then it may be necessary to pull out the tooth and insert an implant to hold the crown.

The cosmetic dentist can discuss the best way to cover your chipped teeth depending on the location of the chipped area and the amount of damage to each tooth that's affected. A combination of treatments may be needed when one tooth is chipped off more than another. Chips in teeth are fairly common, but you may be bothered about the way your teeth look. Fortunately, there's a solution for the problem so you can put an end to worrying about the appearance of your smile.

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