If you lose a tooth, or if you have a gap of two to four missing teeth in a row, then we could recommend a bridge. With a dental bridge, we can fill the gap and help restore the health, function, and appearance of your smile. In today’s blog, your Leawood, KS, dentist talks about prosthodontic solutions to missing teeth!
The Complications of Tooth Loss
When you have even one missing tooth, we want you to see our team right away. A missing tooth could lead to a number of complications for your oral health and overall quality of life. For example, missing teeth could make you feel embarrassed about your appearance, and you could avoid social interactions. Tooth loss could lead to misalignment, causing further changes to your smile’s appearance. Poor alignment is also linked to a greater risk of tooth decay and gum disease. Missing teeth could also impact how you eat! But with a bridge, we can take on between one and up to four missing teeth in a row.
Designing Your Custom Prosthetic
When you see us for your tooth replacement, we will look closely at your smile. We want to decide if a bridge is the best option for you, and we want to also assess the cause of your tooth loss. For issues like periodontal disease, we can manage it to protect your smile from further tooth loss. Our team will then prepare your smile for prosthetic placement. This means we remove structure from the natural teeth on each side of the gap, which means room for the crown portion of your new prosthetic. We take detailed images of the area and then use these images and measurements in a lab setting as we design and craft your new teeth.
Crown vs. Implant Supported
The bridge will contain new teeth with crowns on each end, all made from durable and lifelike ceramic. For a traditional one, we will connect the crown portions to the abutment teeth, which supports your new prosthetic for between 10 and 5 years on average. With dental implants however, we instead insert one to two dental implants into the jaw, no need to remove structure from natural teeth. We attach the bridge to these directly, and they keep your jawbone intact so your new teeth can last for much longer, decades even.
If you have any questions, then contact our team today to learn more!
Schedule a Visit for A Dental Prosthetic
Our team wants to help address the unsightly gaps in your smile! To learn more about our approach to prosthodontic treatment to schedule your next visit with us, call Dreem Dentistry in Leawood, KS, today at (913)681-5500.
