Losing a tooth is never any fun. Whether you lost your tooth to an accident, dental decay, or gum disease–you probably feel like a part of you is missing and have lost confidence in your smile.
At Lake Lanier Smiles, we love to see our patients smile again, so we offer tooth bridge treatment (also called bridge and crown) at affordable prices. A tooth bridge is an excellent way to restore your confidence in your appearance, as well as your ability to bite and chew properly.
Quality dental care should be affordable and accessible. We offer low prices for commonly needed dental procedures to give you the excellent care you deserve! If you have lost a tooth, call us today at (770) 831-0559 for an appointment with one of our friendly dentists.
What is a Tooth Bridge?
A tooth bridge, also called a dental bridge (or bridge and crown procedure), is a one-piece dental restoration that provides a replacement tooth by using the two teeth next to the gap for support. A tooth bridge looks like a row of three connected teeth: the two on the side are attached over the nearby teeth and the one in the middle is a full prosthetic tooth that sits over the gap. A tooth bridge can also be used to replace two missing teeth, in which case there will be two prosthetic teeth in the middle.
A tooth bridge is a good option if your teeth outside the gap also need repair and crowning, since the bridge procedure requires those teeth to be crowned anyway. (Visit our page to learn more about dental crowns.) The procedure for a tooth bridge involves the same procedure used with stand-alone crowns to attach the bridge to the teeth next to the gap.
Benefits of a Tooth Bridge
Aside from replacing your missing teeth, a benefit of bridges is that they stabilize your adjacent teeth and help you maintain your proper tooth alignment. When missing teeth are not replaced, the remaining teeth will start to slowly shift into the open space. This is never a good thing, because changes to your alignment can affect the way you bite and chew, and cause pain or bruxism (teeth grinding) in the jaw. Many patients who lose one or more teeth end up losing more teeth in a few years if they don’t get them replaced promptly.
Patients can also end up with improper jaw muscle use when teeth are lost. If you favor the side of the jaw with more teeth when you are chewing, this can lead to stress on the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). TMJ disorder is a chronic condition that can lead to pain, soreness, and head and neck pain. Tooth bridges are therefore a great way to prevent a number of bad things from happening to you in the future.
Caring for A Tooth Bridge
Tooth bridges do require slightly different care than natural teeth, but most patients easily adapt to the changes. Flossing around the bridge is necessary to remove bacteria from the gum line, but one must also floss under the bridge. Since loose dental floss is not easy to maneuver beneath a bridge, most patients switch to the use of stiff flossers, flossing picks, or water flossers.
Contact us to learn more about tooth bridges. They are an affordable way to restore your smile and improve your oral health, now and in the future.
Call Lake Lanier Smiles to learn about our Smile Value Plan for uninsured patients. if you’ve lost a tooth, our Buford GA dentists can provide needed treatments for up to 40 percent less than our usual low prices. Call us at (770) 831-0559 or book an appointment online to learn more.
