When you sustain a missing tooth, or as many as three in a row, then you need a prosthetic to protect your smile from major complications. To offer a lifelike solution to tooth loss, we could place a bridge. In today’s blog, your Sunny Smiles team talks about our traditional and implant-secured bridges!
The Causes and Dangers of Tooth Loss
How does a tooth become lost? For some, this could be due to a cavity or an infection that isn’t treated in a timely manner. The tooth could require extraction to prevent the spread of infection, or may simply fall out. An injury could be responsible too. But the most common reason is gum disease. More accurately, the periodontitis stage is the number one cause of adult tooth loss. Without treatment, your minor tooth loss could lead to misalignment, poor oral health, and even painful complications like TMJ disorder or bruxism (teeth grinding). Issues eating and even speaking could occur as well! But we can treat minor tooth loss with our dental bridges.
Crafting Your Prosthetic
For a traditional bridge, our team will gently remove structure from the teeth on each side of your gap, known as abutment teeth. We next take detailed digital images of the smile from multiple angles, and use them in a lab setting to design and fabricate your custom prosthetic. Made from ceramic, the bridge will look natural and blend with your smile, while also providing a durable chewing surface. The prosthetic contains new teeth with crowns on one or both ends.
Traditional and Implant Options
For a traditional one, we will connect the crowns to the abutment teeth we remove structure from, securing your prosthetic for 10 to 15 years. Replacement is needed as the jaw ridge changes shape. However, we could also insert one to two dental implants and attach the prosthetic to them. We don’t need to remove structure from natural teeth, and since implants prevent changes to your jaw ridge, your new prosthetic can last for decades to come, possibly a lifetime. We can carefully examine your smile and talk about which option is best for your smile. Regardless of which one we choose, you can enjoy a full and beautiful smile again.
If you have any questions about how we diagnose and treat issues like missing teeth with our custom dental bridges, then contact our team today to learn more. Don’t live with the negative impacts of tooth loss, talk to our team about possible solutions today!
TALK TO OUR TEAM ABOUT TOOTH REPLACEMENT TODAY
Talk to our team today about addressing your minor tooth loss with a prosthetic. To schedule an appointment with Sunny Smiles in El Paso, TX, call us at 915.759.7000.