How Long Does Composite Bonding Last?

Hi guys, it’s Peter Wong from HVS, and a fair amount of my work is composite bonding. One of the most common questions I get asked is how long does composite bonding last? In my experience, what I find is that if it’s done well, you can exceed five to seven years. But the key thing is what happens after five to seven years. Composite bonding doesn’t just fall off and composite bonding can fail in different ways. One of the ways it can fail is that it can chip or break. That usually is caused by trauma, so you may be eating a nut or getting knocked whilst drinking from a glass bottle. Other modes of failure would be staining, we often see staining at the gum margin or between the teeth. Composites can wear, they can lose their polish-ability.

One of the advantages of composite is that it’s much easier to renovate and repair, compared to ceramic restorations. For example, if you have staining between the teeth or at the gum margin, this staining can be easily lifted off by doing some simple home whitening treatments. If the composite breaks, we can easily repair that by bonding the new composite to the old composite. Or if the composite starts to lose its polish or luster over time, within a 5-minute appointment, we can easily bring back the luster that you may have once had in your composite restorations.

It’s this ease or this ability of composites to be repaired, renewed, re-polished, re-bonded to is why composite bonding is becoming a much more favorable treatment option and when doing mini smile makeovers compared to ceramic restorations.

If you’re a patient that’s recently had some composite bonding, look after them, so you get as much life out of them as possible. Visit your dentist regularly, ideally every six months so they can track the progress of the restorations. Keep a good diet, have good oral hygiene and if you’ve been given a mouth guard, make sure you wear it. Thank you.

What You Should Know About Dental Bonding? Read here!