Dental Implants vs Dental Bridges: The Missing Pieces to a Striking Smile 

By: Arthur Glosman DDS

Missing teeth can be a major reason for people to avoid smiling as this knowledge can be devastating to confidence.  But there’s more at stake than your social life when missing teeth are not taken care of. A missing tooth can be the precursor to bite irregularities, surrounding tooth shifting, speech impediments, and even tooth decay or periodontal disease. There’s no reason why you should expose yourself to these risks and feel afraid to smile when options exist to remedy it. Two of the more common and available options are dental bridges and dental implants.

Dental Bridges

A dental bridge provides an approach to filling the gap left by a missing tooth or teeth when dental implants cannot be done to poor bone density or another underlying medical condition that is complicated by surgery. Dental bridges come in several varieties, all of which are fixed in place once complete; these varieties include the conventional fixed bridge, the resin-bonded bridge, and the cantilever bridge. In your usual conventional and cantilever bridges, the surrounding teeth are shaped so as to fit a crown that will attach to the artificial tooth. Conversely, a resin-bonded bridge, while requiring less groundwork, demands the teeth and gums surrounding the gap are healthy and scarce of other dental work.

If your dentist decides your gum and teeth health are sufficient for dental bridges, then your first visit will involve the readying of the teeth intended to support your new bridge, as well as take impressions with a material similar to putty in order to generate the model for your bridge. The mold will be sent to a lab for creation and your dentist will affix a temporary bridge to prevent gum and/or tooth injury in the meanwhile. The last step is returning to your dentist for a final mounting and cementing of your permanent bridge.

Dental Implants

A dental implant is a prosthetic tooth that is designed by your cosmetic dentist and mounted to a post previously installed by an oral surgeon. In terms of returning full strength and function of the missing tooth, no other procedure comes close. Even more impressive is they’re nearly indistinguishable from your other real teeth. In comparison to their less durable counterparts, dentures and bridges, dental implants present a permanent solution to missing teeth if you are a candidate for the procedure. Candidacy will typically be based on the likelihood of your jaw to successfully integrate with the dental implant.

To prepare the jaw for an implant, a small pilot hole must be drilled at the future implant site by a skilled dentist so as not to harm crucial jaw and facial structures. Once this is done, the hole is carefully widened to grant the implant screw (typically titanium in construction) access and area for placement. Once secured, the implant is covered by a protective screw to allow the site time to heal and undergo osseointegration (the process by which the dental implant secures itself to the bone of the jaw). This healing and attachment period may take as long as three to six months at the end of which a temporary crown is placed to shape the surrounding gum tissue. The implant is complete when the temporary crown is replaced by a permanent one which looks and feels virtually identical to the other teeth in your mouth.

The Right Procedure

So how do you pick the right one for you? For some cost may be the issue, while others may find out from their dentist that a certain option simply is not possible. Others still may require a combination of the two. Whatever your case, there is a solution to your missing teeth and your beautiful smile could be just a trip to dentist away!

Dr. Glosman DDS is a practicing aesthetic and reconstructive dentist located in Beverly Hills California. You can read more about him in the Summer 2009 Cosmetic Dentist Review at Dr Arthur Glosman Featured Cosmetic Dentist Review or visit his website at www.arthurglosmandds.com