Reasons for Tooth Loss
People lose teeth for a variety of reasons, including:
One of the solutions to missing teeth Dr. Marzban offers her Burke area patients is dental bridges.
- Age
- Injury or trauma to tooth or teeth
- Genetics
- Tobacco use
- Diabetes or other disease
- Periodontal (gum) disease
- Poor diet
- Poor oral health
- Teeth grinding
What are Dental Bridges
There are three types of dental bridges:
- Traditional dental bridges – The most common type of bridge, these have an artificial tooth (pontic) anchored to the neighboring teeth (abutment teeth) with metal wings. Each adjacent tooth is given a dental crown to support the bridge. It is also possible that people missing more than one tooth will have more than a single artificial tooth placed on the bridge.
- Cantilever dental bridges – This type is used when there is only one adjacent tooth next to the missing tooth or teeth
- Maryland bonded bridge – Plastic teeth and gums are supported by metal, and metal wings are placed on each side of the bridge and bonded to the existing teeth using resin.
The benefits of dental bridges include:
- Repair your smile
- Restore your bite function
- Regain the ability to eat and speak properly
- Keep existing teeth from drifting out of alignment
- Replace a missing tooth without bone graft
Placing a dental bridge takes two visits. However, once Dr. Marzban places your dental bridge, no one will be able to tell you have had dental work performed as the color is matched to your natural teeth.
Limits of Dental Bridges
Although dental bridges are good tooth replacement options, they aren’t right for everyone. And there are some ways that they are not as good as dental implants.
When you lose a tooth, your body begins to remove the bone that used to support that tooth. Because a dental bridge doesn’t stimulate your jaw bone, it won’t stop that process. Over time, the bone loss under the bridge can become a cosmetic problem. It may even threaten neighboring teeth.
Dental bridges usually require the removal of tooth material from the teeth used to support it. Whenever we remove healthy tooth material, we make that tooth weaker. So we prefer not to use dental bridges when neighboring teeth are healthy.
There are also potential problems because dental bridges rely on your natural teeth for support. A dental bridge helps distribute force among your natural teeth, but it doesn’t replace the support that was lost when you lost a tooth. Sometimes, a dental bridge can put excess force on one or more of your natural teeth, leading to failure of those teeth. This is more common with cantilevered bridges, which is why Dr. Marzban uses them less often now that we have dental implants.
Maryland bridges are weaker than other bridges, so they’re not usually good choices for long-term use. But they make good temporary restorations as part of your dental implant process.
