Losing your natural teeth can leave behind gaps in your smile, and this could mean serious trouble for your oral health, bite function, and the appearance of your facial structure. But our team can help preserve your smile with dental bridges! In today’s blog, your Prairie Village, KS, dentist talks about filling empty gaps with our dental bridges.
The Causes of Your Missing Teeth
Why do we lose our natural teeth in adulthood? For some, missing teeth could be due to an injury to your bite, or even untreated cavities or infection. The most common cause of adult tooth loss is actually the periodontitis stage of gum disease. When you lose teeth, the nearby teeth can drift from position to create misalignment, further harming your smile’s health and appearance. Missing teeth also impact your bite balance and could leave you vulnerable to TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding). Your jawbone could also weaken due to tooth loss, which leads to additional missing teeth. But with a dental prosthetic, such as a bridge, we can help protect your smile and restore your quality of life.
Creating a Custom Dental Prosthetic
With a dental bridge, we can replace a single missing tooth or as many as three in a row. We will begin the process by numbing the abutment teeth on each side of the gap. Afterward, we will remove structure from these teeth to make room for the crown portion of your new prosthetic. We take detailed images and impressions of these areas and the abutment teeth, and use them in a lab setting to design your new teeth and craft them from ceramic. They can be shaded to blend with your teeth and handle daily bite forces with ease!
Securing Our Dental Bridges
The completed bridge will contain end teeth with crowns on one or both ends, and for a traditional option we will attach the crowns to the abutment teeth to secure your new teeth in place for about 10 to 15 years, at which point changes to the jaw ridge shape may mean replacement is needed. But we could also insert one to two dental implants to support them, and this option keeps the jaw intact and allows new teeth to remain in place for decades to come.
If you have any questions about how our team will treat tooth loss with a custom and lifelike dental prosthetic, then contact our team today.
Call Dr. Robert Browne, D.D.S. for A Dental Prosthetic
We are ready to provide a lifelike and durable solution to the gaps in your smile. To find out more about our office, or to schedule an appointment, please call Dr. Robert M. Browne, D.D.S. in Prairie Village, KS at (913) 901-8585.
