If you are missing one or more teeth, your dentist may have recommended that you get a dental bridge. If this is a procedure you are considering, it’s important to understand what to expect during the procedure and what you can expect your teeth to look like after the treatment is completed.
Dental Bridge Procedure For Missing Teeth
There are a number of ways that a dental bridge can be used to replace missing teeth in your mouth, but they all work in the same general fashion. Basically what happens is that a false tooth is created to replace the tooth you are missing and it is attached in one way or another to one or more surrounding teeth.
The false replacement tooth is referred to as a pontic and is essentially a fully fabricated tooth that looks and functions as if it were a real tooth. The color is matched to the surrounding teeth in your mouth so that it looks completely natural and the size and shape of the tooth is carefully created to mimic the size and shape of your real tooth, if it were still to be there. This gives you the ability to chew, eat and speak in much the same way as you did before you lost your tooth.
Since the pontic needs something attached to it in order to secure it permanently into place, the tooth is attached to a “bridge” that attaches the tooth covering the open space to the adjacent tooth or teeth. If you have healthy teeth next to the space where the replacement tooth will go, the bridge will attach to the healthy teeth. However, if you have a span of missing teeth, your dentist may recommend that you get one or more dental implants that can serve as an anchor for the dental bridge.
Bridges that are attached to adjacent teeth on both sides are referred to as traditional bridges. Sometimes there may only be a tooth on one side to use as a way to attach the replacement tooth and when this occurs, it is referred to as a cantilever bridge.
If your existing teeth are going to serve as the support system for your new bridge, your dentist will first have to file down the tooth so that a crown can be placed over the existing tooth structure. This crown will be part of the bridge and will attach to the crown that will take the place of the missing tooth. The surrounding tooth that will be modified to hold a crown is called an abutment.
If your bridge will be attached to a dental implant instead, the dentist will first need to go through the steps to implant a small titanium rod into your jawbone, where it will be left to heal fully for a number of months. During this time you will have a temporary over the implant but once healed, a permanent crown will be fitted onto the implant that will attach to any other replacement teeth needed to form a dental bridge.
For more information about dental bridges, contact Park Dental Care in Queens at 718-274-1515.
