All-Porcelain Bridges
A bridge is a fixed (cemented in place) dental appliance that is used to replace one or more missing teeth. Replacing missing teeth with a bridge restores your normal bite and prevents a number of serious additional problems from developing.
When a tooth is lost, the biting forces change on the teeth next to the space, and they begin to shift. When an opposing tooth no longer has anything to bite against, it begins to slowly extrude out of the socket. You may eventually end up losing that
tooth.
As your bite changes, it becomes increasingly difficult to chew your food. This change in your bite can also cause damage to your jaW-joint (the TMJ). It's also much harder to clean teeth that have shifted, so harmful plaque and bacteria accumulate in
these new, hard-to-reach places. This can result in cavities, gum (periodontal) disease, and permanent bone loss. Bridges correct these problems by filling in the space left by missing or extracted teeth, stabilizing your bite and remaining teeth.
White bridges used to be made of porcelain bonded to a metal core. Near the gumline, you could see the dark blue metal through the porcelain. Today, bridges can be made entirely from porcelain, so they are translucent and hard to distinguish from your
natural teeth. Without the metal core, there is no dark line where the bridge meets the gums. This allows us to place the edge of the bridge above the gumline, which is much healthier for your teeth and gums.
The procedure
It takes several appointments to replace a missing tooth with a bridge. That's because your bridge will be custom-crafted in a dental laboratory to precisely fit your teeth. To make the entire procedure comfortable for you, the first thing we'll do is
make sure the affected area is completely numb. Then we'll reduce and contour the teeth on each side of the open space.
After we've prepared the supporting teeth, we'll take an impression of your teeth. Sometimes, we'll place a piece of string, called a retraction cord, between the tooth and your gums; this gently pushes your gums away from your tooth, helping us get a
more accurate impression. The string is removed after the impression is taken. The impression creates an accurate working model of your mouth, including the prepared teeth. This helps us recreate your natural bite.
For the week or two that it takes the dental lab to create your new bridge, you'll have a temporary bridge in your mouth. Then, at your next visit, we'll remove the temporary and you'll try in your new bridge. We'll adjust the bite and make sure floss
works smoothly. When everything looks good, we'll cement your new bridge in place.
