Dental Implants vs Fixed Bridges
I am dr. Wong from Hidden Valley Smiles and today I’m coming to you with answers to a common question that we get every single day here at the office and the question is what’s a bridge and what’s an implant. So, we’re going to just show the differences so you have a good idea of and hopefully be a little bit more knowledgeable next time you go visit our dental office.
Today we’re gonna discuss the options of replacing a single missing tooth. If two teeth around the missing tooth are healthy the best option is to replace that single missing tooth with a dental implant which is a titanium screw that gets placed in the bone underneath the gums. After several months of healing, we would add something called an abutment which serves as the foundation for a new crown. Once that’s placed we can put the crown in typically in the same appointment and thus your single missing tooth is now restored.
The other option to replace a missing tooth is with a dental bridge. This is a more viable option and a better option if those adjacent teeth around the missing tooth already need crowns. So, a bridge is commonly used to replace any missing teeth, it could be a molar in the back or could even be a front tooth. A bridge typically has a front tooth and a back tooth that replaces a missing tooth in the middle. A tooth is shaped around another one and then a bridge is then permanently glued over those teeth so that you can get three teeth where there were only two before.
Types of Dental Bridges? – Read Here!