Dental Bridges

Don’t live with a gap in your smile. Dental bridges can help!

In a perfect world, everyone would have all their natural teeth. However, accidents happen, and sometimes we don’t take as good of care of our teeth as we should. If you’ve lost a tooth due to trauma or extraction, you’re going to want to have it replaced. Failure to do so could result in movement of your other teeth, misalignment of your bite, reduction of your ability to chew and speak, gum disease, and infection. Dental bridges are one option for replacing your tooth.

Types of dental bridges:

Traditional bridge – In a traditional bridge, the majority of the enamel is removed from both teeth adjacent to the missing tooth or teeth. After this is done, an impression of the area is taken. This impression is used to create the bridge, which consists of crowns for the adjacent teeth with an artificial tooth, or Pontic, in between. This type of bridge can be removable or permanent, but permanent bridges are more common and easier to maintain once they’re in place. Permanent traditional bridges are made of porcelain and are bonded to the adjacent teeth with a dental cement. A traditional bridge can be used to replace a single tooth, or multiple teeth if need be.

Cantilever bridge – A cantilever bridge is similar to a traditional bridge, except that it is secured by one adjacent tooth instead of two. Since it is only mounted to one natural tooth, a cantilever bridge is not as strong as a traditional bridge, and is therefore unsuitable for use on teeth that will be subject to large amounts of pressure, like molars. It is also unsuitable for replacing more than one tooth.

Maryland bridges – a Maryland bridge is secured by either metal or porcelain wings that are bonded to the adjacent natural teeth. While not as strong as a traditional bridge, a Maryland bridge has the advantage of not requiring extensive grinding on the adjacent teeth to be mounted.

If you’re missing one or more teeth, a bridge may be just the ticket to get you back to having a fully functional, beautiful smile. Give us a call today to find out what tooth replacement option is right for you.