Replacing Missing Teeth

Teeth may become lost at times due to extreme decay, gum and tissue diseases, or receiving blows. In certain other cases, the tooth is missing congenitally. The empty space resulting from such missing teeth can be replaced using bridges or implants.

● Bridges

This method is called bridging since the two teeth adjacent to the missing tooth are used as abutments and one or several teeth are installed in the empty space between those two abutment teeth. Bridges are categorized based on their structure.

1.Normal Bridges

The teeth adjacent to the missing tooth serving as abutments are capped and one or more teeth are installed in the space between them. The interior part or the framework of the bridges is commonly metal so that it would be solid enough and its surface is covered by porcelain. The kind of metal in these bridges are different but a variety of materials from cheap alloys to gold can be used. The crowns produced by alloys containing gold constitute more accurate margins. In more recent times, bridges are also being designed and made without metal. Naturally, they appear more beautiful but enjoy less strength and durability compared with metal bridges.

2.Conservative Bridges

 The teeth serving as abutments are not capped in this method (which is one advantage of this process) and metal or composite dovetails are used to join the added tooth to the adjacent abutment teeth. Maryland and inlay bridges are examples of conservative bridges in which the adjacent teeth are prepared as much as a small filling and their healthy tissues are preserved to the extent possible. These bridges are suitable for replacing one or two teeth but lack the solidity required to fill the empty space caused by more than two teeth. In the latter case, normal bridges containing metal or implant technology should be used to replace missing teeth.