Dental Bridges: An Overview
A dental bridge is a good option to replace several missing teeth. As your trusted restorative dentist in Laurel, MD, our doctors are happy to provide you with this service to restore and renew your smile. Dental bridges use your remaining teeth to support a bridge. They will hold a prosthetic tooth in the place of your missing tooth. Often, your bridges dentist will cap the surrounding teeth with dental crowns to provide more support.
Dental bridges allow you to regain the function and look of your smile. Additionally, replacing a missing tooth assists in retaining your bite pattern, which directly impacts your chewing and speaking. A missing tooth can cause several issues if not replaced promptly. If you are interested in our bridge for missing tooth in Laurel, schedule an appointment with our team today.
DENTAL BRIDGES IN LAUREL, MD
TRADITIONAL VS. IMPLANT-SUPPORTED BRIDGES
Traditional bridges utilize your natural teeth to support them. Your dentist will need to prepare anchor teeth on each side of the missing tooth or teeth to make room for the mouth bridge. Often, we use dental crowns to help strengthen those teeth. A crown takes on the bulk of the weight and pressure from the bridge instead of harming your natural teeth. Natural teeth can break down faster and be more susceptible to tooth decay and other problems if they’re supporting a traditional bridge without fortification. Traditional oral bridges can be removable or fixed.
Implant-supported bridges use dental implants instead of natural teeth to support the bridge. This type of dental implant bridge is always fixed, but its also a permanent solution. You will need to readjust or replace a traditional bridge as the jawbone continues to deteriorate. Dental implants stop the jawbone from continuing to deteriorate. With implants involved, there is no need to readjust or replace the restoration. Its in your mouth permanently.
It does take longer to get an implant-supported bridge. The implant procedure is first, and the implants must heal surgically before proceeding. The dentist places a temporary restoration to assist you until the final restoration is ready. In all types of bridges, we match the color, shape, and size of the artificial teeth so that the restoration fits in seamlessly with your smile.