Bridges

If you are missing a tooth or several teeth, dental bridges are a very natural-looking way to replace them. Dental bridges not only help restore the function of your missing teeth but have several advantages that may make them the right treatment option for you.

Restore your smile

Missing teeth often affect the appearance of your smile – unless they are at the back of your mouth.  Dental bridges fill in the teeth and look as natural as your surrounding teeth.

Maintain facial shape

Your face and jawbone can change shape if you are missing one or several teeth. Your jaw bone needs the pressure from the teeth chewing to stimulate it to regenerate.  Without the teeth there, the jawbone recedes.  Replacing lost teeth will help maintain facial shape and minimize changes to your face and jaw.

Prevent chewing problems

TMD is caused when your teeth are not meeting properly and the bite becomes imbalanced.  This leads to a host of symptoms including headaches, earaches, jaw pain and even neck and shoulder pain.   Since missing teeth cause you to favour chewing on one side consistently, this behaviour could lead to bite issues and more serious jaw joint issues such as TMD.

Allow you to speak properly

Teeth are important to proper pronunciation in speech. Missing teeth can quickly affect the way you talk. A dental bridge provides the same function as a natural tooth and immediately allows normal speech ability to return.

Prevent teeth from shifting

When a tooth is missing, the teeth around the space tend to shift, tilt, or drift into that space. Once teeth have shifted, it is not easy to shift them back.  A dental bridge holds the space of the missing tooth and prevents undesired changes to the neighbouring teeth.

Advantages of dental bridges compared to implants

Dental implants have become a popular alternative to dental bridges and may indeed be a good choice for you.  Since we’re on the topic of the advantages of dental bridges, however, the following are a couple of the significant advantages.

• Bridges are much less expensive than implants, especially if multiple teeth need to be replaced.
• If your bone has recessed at the site of the missing tooth, implants may require bone grafting