Should you lose a tooth, or as many as three in a row, then you need a dental prosthetic. To improve the health, function, and appearance of your smile, we can provide a custom dental bridge. In today’s blog, your Houston, TX, dentist talks about replacing missing teeth with our custom bridges.
The Causes and Risks of Tooth Loss
Losing natural teeth is a major issue that needs immediate attention., Even one lost tooth could lead to misalignment, and with it, further negative changes to your smile’s appearance and a higher risk of tooth decay and gum disease. Missing teeth could strain your jaw joints by upsetting bite balance, which increases the risk of TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding). You could also feel embarrassed about your appearance and as this impacts your social interactions, your overall quality of life could suffer.
Creating a Custom Dental Bridge
A dental bridge is a custom prosthetic that can address minor tooth loss, so you have a full smile again and avoid further complications with your smile. To ensure a proper fit and a lifelike appearance, we always custom-make our prosthetics. To begin, we will numb the abutment teeth, the ones on each side of the gap in your smile. We then remove structure from them to make room for the crown portions of your prosthetic. After our team takes detailed images and measurements of the abutment teeth and the gap, we will use them in a lab setting to design and then fabricate your prosthetic.
Traditional and Implant-Supported Options
The bridge will contain one to three new teeth with crowns on either end. Made from ceramic, these can be color-matched to ensure they match surrounding teeth, and the material also means your new teeth can handle daily bite forces and pressures with ease. With a traditional option, we will attach the crowns to the abutment teeth, which secures your new ones in place for 10 to 15 years on average.
For a longer-lasting one, we could use dental implants. In this scenario, we don’t need to remove structure from abutment teeth, instead we just insert one to two dental implants into the gap in your smile. These bond with the jaw and prevent the loss of mass and density, which usually follows tooth loss. This means we connect the crowns directly to them instead, and your new prosthetic can stay in place for decades to come, possibly a lifetime!
If you have any questions about our dental bridges, then contact our team today!
Healthy Smiles Provides Custom Tooth Replacement
Our team is ready to help take on minor tooth loss with long-lasting and lifelike replacement options. To find out more about our office, or to schedule an appointment, please call Healthy Smiles Family Dentistry in Houston, TX at (281) 974-4494.
