I am Martin Southon, Dentist and owner of St Stephens Dental Practice.

My dental Surgery is bang up to date using the latest techniques and materials, with a few exceptions. One is glue, the dental adhesive I use. These adhesives are big business in dentistry with huge research into them and new ones seemingly coming out each week. I use the same one I have used since Dental school. 25 years or so.

Why?…Because it works! I know how it works and I can see it is working at each of its 3 stages. It is called Gluma from the 2 active ingredients, Glutaraldehyde and Methacrylate. New ones may be quicker but you cannot see they have worked and the reps cannot explain to me how they work. I like to know how things work.

This week I have used this “glue” to repair the front teeth of two youngsters. One tried to eat a cricket bat, the other a badminton racquet! Quite common sports incidents at this time of year. In both cases their parents had the foresight to bring in the broken piece of tooth. These fragments can then be bonded back as good as new and nearly as strong as ever with the adhesive. My GP had 4 teeth repaired this way about 10 years ago following a close encounter playing squash.

So that’s the team at St Stephens Dental Practice performing minor mouth miracles and using common sense in choosing products to maintain your confidence to smile.