3 Primary Types Of Dental Bridges

If you have had a tooth extracted from your mouth, and you have a gap where the missing tooth was located, one way you can fill in that gap is with a dental bridge. There are three primary types of dental bridges that your dentist may use to fill in that gap. The type of dental bridge that your dentist uses depends upon your unique situation. Here is a brief rundown of the three primary types of dental bridge options that your dentist may discuss with you.

Traditional Bridge

The type of bridge that your dentist is most likely to discuss with you is the traditional bridge. With a traditional bridge, the missing tooth in your mouth will be filled in with a fake tooth. In order to keep that tooth in place, a structure or bridge has to be created.

Your dentist will create a crown for the teeth on either side of your missing tooth. They will create a crown in order to strength these teeth since they are now going to be supporting not just themselves, but another tooth as well. In order to place the crown, they will need to file down your teeth to make it fit correctly.

After a crown is placed on the teeth on both sides of your missing tooth, a replacement tooth will be placed in the gap in your mouth.

This replacement tooth will be fused to the crowns on either side of the gap. It will be fused together with either a ceramic or metal material.

Cantilever Bridge

If there is only a tooth on one side next to your missing tooth where you now have a gap, your dentist will most likely discuss with you the option of getting a cantilever bridge installed.

With a cantilever bridge, the bridge is created using the two teeth that are in front of the gap or missing tooth. Instead of filing down the teeth on either side of your gap, your dentist will file down the tooth right next to your gap, as well as the tooth next to the one that they just filed down.

After they file down both of those teeth, they will create two crowns that will be right next to each other. From there, they will fuse the replacement tooth to the two crowns that are abutting one another.

Your dentist has to use two teeth in order to create a structure that will be strong enough to last and that will keep your replacement tooth in place.

Maryland Bridge

If you are missing a front tooth, your dentist will most likely discuss the option of a Maryland bridge with you.

A Maryland bridge is slightly different than the other two bridge options discussed above. Instead of filing down two nearby teeth and attaching crowns to them, your dentist will make a replacement tooth out of plastic, and will keep it in place by attaching a metal framework that will be bonded to the teeth on either side of your missing tooth. Your teeth next to your missing tooth will still have to support your replacement tooth, just in a different manner.

The type of dental crown you need depends upon your specific situation; if you have any additional questions about the dental crown options available for you, be sure to bring them up during your dental crown consultation with your dentist, such as http://adazzlingsmile.com/.


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