Dental Bridges: Your Time-Tested Tooth Replacement Option
If you’ve lost a tooth, you might have been living with a gap in your smile for a while. Perhaps you don’t smile much anymore because you feel self-conscious about it. You might be avoiding some of your favorite foods because it has become difficult to chew them.
Living this way is no fun, but did you know that there are other reasons you should replace a missing tooth? When a gap in your smile goes unrestored, it means that adjacent teeth begin to shift to fill in the missing space. Much like books on a bookshelf tend to fall when you remove one of them, so too do your teeth tend to move. This can cause issues with your bite, cause undue wear on your healthy teeth, and cause you to lose even more teeth in the future.
A dental bridge is a common prosthetic that replaces one or a few missing teeth. It will protect your smile and restore its function. For more information on dental bridges—or dental crowns if you need to repair a damaged tooth—we invite you to contact our Pikesville, MD dental clinic.
How Dental Bridges Work
A dental bridge is much like it sounds: It is a dental prosthetic device that bridges the space between teeth when a tooth or two has been lost. A dental bridge is made up of a pontic and two crowns:
- The artificial tooth, also called the pontic, sits in the space where the tooth is missing
- Two crowns on either side of the space to which the bridge is attached keep it in place
When a Bridge Is Your Best Option
If your teeth are healthy enough to support a dental bridge, this can be a good choice for tooth replacement. It offers stability so you can chew comfortably again, and it will prevent your healthy teeth from moving.
A bridge is also a good choice if you are not ready for the investment of time and money that a dental implant requires.
Call Naylor’s Court Dental Partners to Learn More
If you have a missing tooth or if you have a tooth in need of repair, talk to us about dental crowns and bridges. We can go over your options and educate you so you can determine the best course of action for your situation. Contact us today!
