Our team wants to handle the gaps in your smile left by the loss of a tooth. With a dental bridge, our team can create a custom dental prosthetic that not only looks natural, but restores function to the smile too. In today’s blog, your Virginia Beach, VA, dentist talks about our custom dental bridges.
The Factors Behind Tooth Loss
We could suffer from tooth loss due to injuries, cavities, or infection, or in most cases, gum disease. When you lose a tooth, you may feel embarrassed about the gap in your smile. But don’t ignore the issue or just try to hide your smile. Over time, this missing tooth could lead to trouble with your oral health. For example, this could cause teeth to drift, leading to misalignment that changes your smile’s appearance and increases the risk of tooth decay and gum disease. The gaps could strain your jaw joints, a complication linked to TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding). As the jawbone around the missing root weakens, this could lead to further tooth loss down the road. When you lose a tooth, see us right away!
The Benefits of Replacing Missing Teeth
A dental bridge is designed to fill the gap in your smile, replacing between one and three teeth in a row. The prosthetic contains new teeth known as pontics, with crowns attached to one or both ends. The prosthetic is made from ceramic, which is very durable and able to absorb daily bite forces and the pressures with ease. The material is also metal-free and translucent like tooth enamel, so we can shade it to blend with your smile seamlessly, ensuring your new teeth and crowns look natural. With proper care and attention, each one can last up to 10 to 15 years.
Creating and Placing New Teeth
To create one, our team will numb the teeth on each side of the gap and remove structure from them. These are the abutment teeth, which help support your bridge. We will take detailed digital images and measurements of the teeth and use them to design and craft the final prosthetic in a lab setting. When the prosthetic is ready, we will connect the crown to the abutment teeth to secure your new teeth firmly in place. To maintain your new teeth, brush and floss the bridge like you would natural teeth and clean the space between the top of the gums and the bottom of your prosthetic.
If you have any questions about our custom dental bridges, then contact our team today.
Talk to Our Team About Tooth Replacement
To learn more about how we secure a dental prosthetic, give us a call at Absolute Dental Care in Virginia Beach, VA at (757) 428-7440 to schedule an appointment.
