Is "roughening" a tooth with a slow-speed drill necessary for side bondings, in addition to using acid etching gel?

Hi from Wildwood New Jersey!  My feeling is the first dentist did it the easy way and the acid etching was not enough to hold the bond in place.  The second dentist recommends both procedures before he does the bonding. You have recession but the bonding can help and let him do it using both the acid etchings as well as roughing of the tooth is necessary if you want to keep that bond on!  Good Luck!

I always lightly roughen the surface of the tooth when I'm bonding so the material holds better. It is a very minimal amount and shouldn't really affect the tooth if you some day wanted the bonding removed.