Your teeth play an important role in daily tasks such as smiling, speaking, and chewing. Each tooth also helps maintain the proper alignment of your smile. When you lose teeth due to age, injury, or decay and they are left unreplaced for a significant amount of time, the entire alignment of your smile can shift. Fortunately, through modern dental technology and techniques that we use here in Westfield, Indiana, there are multiple tooth replacement options available. 

Dental bridges are a popular restorative treatment recommended by professionals and chosen by patients who are missing one tooth or multiple teeth in a row. 

Bridge Device 

This dental device consists of a line of artificial teeth with two dental crowns on each end, and full artificial teeth or a tooth in the middle. There are two types of dental bridges, one being permanent and the other being removable. 

Fixed (Permanent) Bridge

In order to secure the bridge into your mouth as a permanent restoration, it is necessary to have the full artificial tooth in the middle and two tooth crowns on the ends that will attach to abutment teeth. The abutment teeth are the two, natural, teeth on either side of the missing gap that will be shaved down and covered with a dental crown.

To permanently place the fixed bridge, the crowns are bonded to the abutment teeth just as dental crowns are bonded in place. It is also possible to just bond the full artificial tooth to the adjacent teeth, without the crowns. 

Removable Bridge

Many patients prefer a removable dental bridge in case they want more extensive restorative treatments in the future. The design of the removable bridge differs from the fixed bridge in that just the artificial tooth/teeth that will be filling in gaps will be attached to the smile with metal clasps. 

Much like a small retainer, the tooth will be made on a removable appliance that can be taken out for cleaning. 

Missing Teeth? 

At Springmill Family Dental we do our best to describe all of the options available to our patients who are seeking extensive restorative or cosmetic dental work. We want to help you decide which treatment is best for you. If you are missing teeth and would like to learn more about dental bridges, call our office here in Westfield, Indiana.