Minor tooth loss could still offer major problems for the function, health, and appearance of your smile. Which is why we recommend a dental prosthetic! With a dental bridge, your Shrewsbury, MA, dentist can offer a secure and lifelike solution to a missing tooth, so your smile looks good and you avoid the complications of a lost tooth!
The Factors Behind Tooth Loss
What happens to cause tooth loss? We could lose a tooth to an injury, or possibly due to an untreated cavity or infection. The most common cause is typically periodontitis, the advanced stage of gum disease. Tooth loss can lead to major issues with your smile, aside from the embarrassing gap in your smile. Nearby teeth could drift as a result of the gap, which creates misalignment that alters the health and appearance of your smile further. The stress on your jaw joints due to imbalance could cause complications like TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding). You could even experience issues with meal options or clear speech. But we can help prevent these with a dental bridge.
Creating Custom Dental Bridges
The bridge is perfect for small gaps in your smile, such as a single missing tooth or as many as three in a row. To begin, we will numb the abutment teeth, the natural ones on each side of the gap in your smile. Once we do, our team will gently remove structure from them and take detailed digital images of these teeth, which we use in a dental lab setting to design and craft your prosthetic.
The prosthetic will be made from ceramic, which can handle daily bite forces and be shaded to blend with your smile. The finished prosthetic contains the new teeth, known as pontics, with corns attached to one or both ends.
Securing Your New Teeth
When your dental bridge is ready, we will check the fit and make sure we don’t need to make any final adjustments to ensure an optimal fit. We then connect the crown portions to the abutment teeth with a powerful bonding agent, which secures them firmly in place. Your bridge can stay in place for 10 to 15 years on average, and we can discuss how to care for your new teeth.
If you have any questions about how our team will secure a new smile with a dental prosthetic, or if you have a gap in your smile that needs attention, then contact our team today to learn more!
Learn More About Our Dental Prosthetics
With our custom dental prosthetics, we can offer solutions for missing teeth. To schedule a visit and enjoy lifelike results, call Modern Dentistry of Shrewsbury in Shrewsbury, MA at (508) 842-8838 today.
