When your smile is missing one or more teeth, dental bridges provide a quality means for filling those gaps. For decades, dentists have installed bridge appliances for patients with great success. This is one option for teeth replacement that remains comfortably viable today, alongside dentures and dental implants.

Dental bridges include two or more crowns on existing, healthy teeth or dental implants. These abutment teeth crowns support the bridge on each side of your missing tooth gap. One or more false teeth called pontics fit onto the bridge to complete your bite. The pontics consist of gold, porcelain, metal alloys or a combination of these dental materials.

The Benefits of Dental Bridges

Dental bridges are an easy fit with existing teeth as anchorsDental bridges restore your smile to a healthy, natural looking and a complete set of teeth. This also enables you to chew and speak properly after tooth loss. Having a bridge in place maintains your face shape and correctly distributes the forces of your bite. A bridge also helps keep your natural teeth aligned, preventing them from shifting out of place and into the gap or missing tooth’s space.

Four main types of dental bridges exist, including traditional, cantilever, Maryland bonded and implant-supported bridges.

Traditional dental bridges use teeth on each side of the gap to support a porcelain and metal or ceramic pontic. More people have traditional bridges, than other types of bridge appliances.

Cantilever bridges also use a supporting tooth, but only on one side of the pontic. This is the least common of bridges, not usually recommended by dentists because of the wear and tear it inflicts on the supporting tooth.

Maryland bonded bridges involve porcelain, porcelain-metal or plastic teeth and gums on a framework bonded to existing teeth.

Implant-supported bridges work well for multiple missing teeth. This type of bridge uses dental implants to support one or more pontics. These provide the most comfortable, secure types of bridge. They also avoid damage to surrounding teeth. You must undergo two surgeries for tooth replacement, over the course of about five months.

Your dentist helps you decide if bridges provide the solution for your missing tooth replacement, as well as which type of bridge suits your needs best.

Caring for Your Bridges and Crowns

Bridges last a lifetime when well cared for. But they sometimes experience damage, become loose or fall out. So the best course of action for maintaining your bridge and supporting crowns is to practice good oral hygiene and continue your regular dental visits. Visiting your dentist twice a year allows for professional teeth cleaning, oral exams and routine maintenance of your bridges in the dentist’s office.

You must also avoid eating hard or sticky foods. This restriction includes ice, hard candies, popcorn kernels and other foods able to damage your bridge or pontic. Sticky foods like caramel, taffy and some gums also damage these dental appliances.

Bridges and Other Dental Appliances in Queen Creek, AZ

Marketplace Dental Excellence provides bridges and other dental appliances in Queen Creek and Gilbert, Arizona. Bridges are one type of dental restoration, with other options available to complete and enhance your smile.

Visiting Marketplace Dental Excellence in Queen Creek provides the preventive dental care you need for a lifetime. These include maintenance of a bright, healthy smile and prevention of tooth decay, gum disease, and other dental issues. If you undergo restorative care, your routine visits also check on the condition of those restorations to prevent damage to this essential smile feature.

Dental services provided at Marketplace Dental Excellence include:

Regular visits with your dentist and dental hygienists ensure you save time and money in the long run. Through preventive care, you avoid costly damage and procedures. These routine exams also ensure your teeth remain healthy and strong.

Dental bridges possibly provide solutions to your missing teeth or gaps in your smile. So call Marketplace Dental Excellence today at 480.545.8700 to learn more about available dental services and make an appointment for your first visit.