How Long Does Composite Bonding Last?

The short answer: three to five years for most people. The range is wide because it depends far more on you than on the material.

It is the question I am asked most often, usually right after I have quoted a price. It deserves a straight answer rather than a reassuring one, because the difference between three years and seven is almost entirely predictable at the consultation, and you are entitled to know which end you are likely to land on before you spend anything.

What decides where you land in that range

1. Whether you grind your teeth

This is the big one, and it is not close. Composite is softer than enamel. If you grind, you will wear through composite faster than you wore through your own tooth, and the edges I build will be the first thing to go. I check for the signs at the consultation: flattened edges, scalloping on the side of the tongue, tenderness in the jaw muscles on waking. If you grind, a night guard is not an upsell, it is the thing that decides whether your bonding lasts three years or five. I would rather sort the bite out first than hand you work that chips inside a year.

2. What the bonding is doing

Composite added to the edge of a tooth that barely touches anything will outlast composite closing a large gap or rebuilding a corner that takes the full force of your bite. Thin, broad additions on heavily loaded teeth are the most likely to chip. Where your case is loaded badly, I will say so, and I will usually suggest porcelain veneers rather than take your money for something I expect to fail.

3. Stain, not strength

Most composite is not replaced because it broke. It is replaced because it stopped matching. Composite picks up stain at the margins, where the material meets the tooth, and it loses its surface polish over time. Red wine, coffee, tea, turmeric and smoking all accelerate it. This is a maintenance issue rather than a failure, which is why the next point matters so much.

4. Whether it gets polished

A polish takes about fifteen minutes and resets the surface. Skipped for five years, the same bonding looks dull and tide-marked and needs replacing instead. I recommend an annual polish with me — a separate appointment, charged for — and it is still the cheapest thing you can do to extend the life of the work.

What "it failed" usually means

• A chip. Repaired in one visit, usually without touching the rest. This is the advantage composite has over porcelain, which gets replaced rather than repaired.
• Staining at the edges. Often polished out. If the margin itself has picked up a line, that section is re-done.

So is composite the wrong choice?

Not at all, and I place a great deal of it. But it is honest to call it a five-year material that is easy to maintain and easy to repair, rather than a permanent one. For a lot of people that is exactly the right trade: nothing is drilled away, it is usually done in a single visit, and if you change your mind in five years you have not lost any tooth.

If you want something you will not think about again for fifteen years, that is porcelain, and it costs more and asks more of the tooth. I set the four routes out side by side with their real lifespans on the home page, and if you are not sure which of them applies to you, start from the problem instead on the dental concerns page.

How I try to make it last

• Check the bite before anything is placed, and treat grinding first
• Whiten first if your shade is changing, because composite does not lighten later
• Build in enough thickness, which sometimes means saying no to the thinnest option
• A night guard where it is indicated, every time
• An annual polish with me, booked separately

---

Written by Dr Bikram Narang, BDS (Glasgow), BEng (Hons) Dental Materials & Engineering. GDC no. 290643. General guidance only, not a diagnosis. What suits your teeth is confirmed only after an examination.