My daughter fell and ended up taking out a chunk of her two front teeth. Her pediatric dentist suggested we use dental bonding to do the repair. We trusted him and went forward with it. However, it looks absolutely terrible. The bonding is uneven, lumpy, and the color doesn’t match the rest of her teeth. She’s eleven years old and still has a week left in school and is too embarrassed to go. Was this the wrong treatment? Is there any way to fix it?

Stacey

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Dear Stacey,

I am sorry this happened to your daughter. That is such a difficult age where they are already insecure about how they feel. While your daughter’s dentist was correct about the type of procedure you would use to fix this, he apparently does not have the skills to pull it off. That does not surprise me. Dental bonding is an advanced cosmetic procedure that has to be done freehand. Additionally, it requires a lot of post-doctoral training. Most pediatric dentists do not invest in cosmetic training, especially after all the extra training they’ve invested in for pediatric care.

The only way to fix this would be for the procedure to be completely redone. I would not expect your daughter’s dentist to be able to do any better the second time. Instead, I would simply ask for a refund and have it redone elsewhere.

At your daughter’s age, you would not need to see a pediatric dentist. Look for a dentist who has advanced training in cosmetic dentistry. Another thing you can do is look at their smile gallery to see what type of results they get. Bonding will last a few years and then need to be redone.  Once she is older and everything is fully developed, you may want to switch her to porcelain veneers. These will last much longer than the bonding, but her oral development needs to be completed first.

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