Restorative Procedures - Bridges

Dental bridges bridge the gap when one or more teeth are missing. To make a dental bridge, two or more crowns are used as anchors in order to hold a false tooth or teeth in place. These false teeth are called pontics and can be made from gold, alloys, porcelain, or a combination of these materials. Dental bridges are supported by natural teeth or implants. There are several types of bridges and your dentist will determine the best, and of course, least invasive kind if you need a bridge.

Dental bridge is one way to correct a space created by missing tooth. Dental bridges literally bridge the gap created by one or more missing teeth. A bridge is made up of two or more crowns for the teeth on either side of the gap -- these two or more anchoring teeth are called abutment teeth -- and a false tooth/teeth in between.

Dental bridges are recommended at times where single tooth replacement is not possible. But it is always better not to have teeth connected together and have separate restorations. Tooth preparation for bridge involves having adjacent teeth prepared fro crowns, which may mean unnecessary tooth reduction.

TRADITIONAL DENTAL BRIDGE:

Two adjacent teeth are reduced to receive traditional dental crows.

ONLAY BRIDGE:

Two adjacent teeth are only partly reduced to receive onlays and carry pontic tooth in the middle. This option offers much more conservative tooth reduction in adjacent teeth and better gingival health.

Adhesive additive technique – “sculpting a bridge”

Where possible adhesive bridge can be sculpted with virtually no alteration of adjacent teeth. Such option is done is one office visit and provides long lasting conservative option for tooth replacement.

CASE 1 – ALISON

Alison had missing tooth for a long time and was interested to have tooth added with dental bridge. She did not have enough space for placing dental implant. We have offered her the most conservative option – adhesive bridge where adjacent teeth were not altered. This postoperative picture was taken 3 years after treatment.

CASE 2 - SYLVANA

Non-Invasive Sculpting Teeth

This patient had severe tooth wear which was treated with adhesive sculpting of the teeth. The individual teeth were sculpted without tooth structure removal. This procedure prevented the need for root canals, posts, and crowns. This postoperative picture was taken 2 years after treatment.