How Do Dental Bridges Treat Missing Teeth?
When we see patients with minor tooth loss, we could help fill the gap with a natural-looking dental bridge. In today’s blog, your Cleveland, TX, dentist talks about how we treat tooth loss and help restore the health, function, and beauty of your smile. Addressing missing teeth could help prevent major complications!
The Factors Behind Tooth Loss
Our teeth could become lost due to untreated infection or severe tooth decay, or an injury to the smile. The most common factor, however, is gum disease. The later stage of the disease could destroy the connective tissues between your teeth and gums, leading to tooth loss. When you lose even one tooth, this could upset the balance and alignment of your smile. Surrounding teeth drift due to the gap, causing misalignment, and the changes to your bite balance could mean the onset of painful jaw joint disorders like TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding). To avoid problems with your oral health, and prevent complications eating or speaking, then you should seek tooth replacement.
Creating a Dental Prosthetic
To begin, we will take detailed digital x-rays and intraoral camera images of your smile, which we use to assess the cause and extent of your tooth loss. We then choose the best prosthetic, which is often a bridge for those with one to three missing teeth in a row. To create one, we will administer a local anesthetic and then gently remove structure from the abutment teeth, the natural ones on either side of the gap in your smile. We then gather detailed digital images to help us design and craft the finished product in a lab setting. The prosthetic will be made from ceramic, a strong material that can not only absorb daily bite forces, but be shaded to blend with your smile. The bridge contains your new teeth, or pontics, with crowns attached to each end.
Securing Your Dental Bridge
When your new smile is ready, we will check the fit and make any necessary adjustments. We then connect the crowns to the abutments, which secures the pontics into place. Your new bridge could last for up to 10 or 15 years in some cases, helping you enjoy a full and functional smile that looks great too. If you have any questions about treating tooth loss then give our team a call today!
Do You Have a Missing Tooth?
Our team is ready to replace your missing teeth with a durable, lifelike dental bridge. If you have any questions about our dental prosthetics, or if you would like to schedule a consultation today, please contact Cleveland Family Dentistry in Cleveland, TX, at (281) 592-1234. You can also find our practice at 205 E. Houston St. Cleveland, TX 77327.