Dental Bridges

Most commonly, a dental bridge replaces two teeth but can replace up to four. There are advantages and risks to a dental bridge. 

The advantages include: 

• It replaces your missing teeth. 
• It restores function for chewing and speaking properly
• It prevents your remaining teeth from shifting, which causes problems in your bite. 
• It reduces the risk of bone loss, thus maintaining the structure of your face. 
• Bridges are permanently fixed and do not move about like dentures. 

The risks include: 

• An ill-fitting bridge can cause decay of the tooth under the crown.
• There is a reduction in the structures of the natural healthy teeth that accommodate the appliance in place. 
• The restoration can collapse if the supporting teeth are not strong enough. 
• As the name implies, the dental bridge is used to "bridge" the gap between teeth when tooth loss has occurred.

Three crowns form the appliance. The crowns at each end function as anchorage to healthy adjacent teeth on each side of the gap, and the middle crown serves as a false tooth to replace the one or two missing teeth. Dental implants may be necessary if the adjacent teeth are not healthy enough. 

The dental bridge is fixed, cemented on the healthy adjacent teeth or a dental implant. The bridge consists of metals, fold and silver, with porcelain fused to the metal. 

The procedure: 

• Local anesthetic is injected into the teeth being used as anchors. 
• The anchor teeth are reshaped and sized to accommodate the crowns that will hold the appliance in place. 
• A dental impression of the anchors is made and used to manufacture a custom-fit dental bridge. 
• Once the fitting is precise, it is permanently cemented in place.