You’re only human, so accidents happen. However, if you have the misfortune of suffering an accident that results in tooth loss or damage, it can compromise your self-esteem as well as your oral health! Drs. Doug and Doug Clark can repair damage to your teeth at Hill Avenue Dental, and our restorative dentistry staff will be there to provide professional and moral support. Our Superior, WI practice has the technology to repair a tooth fracture with a crown and then replace missing teeth with a dental bridge.
A bridge is a dental prosthetic created specifically for you to fill the space created by one to three absent teeth. It’s typically attached by dental crowns to the teeth that lie on either side of the opening, giving you the degree of permanency you’re looking for. This replacement prevents teeth from shifting into the gap and further changing your bite. Drs. Clark and Clark can place a dental bridge to restore the normal function of your bite at our Superior, WI location.
You’ll first come to Hill Avenue Dental for an examination to determine whether or not your teeth are healthy enough to support a dental bridge in Superior. We’ll take notes on the size, shape, and color of your other teeth so that we’ll be able to create a bridge that blends well with your natural teeth. Based on this initial consultation, we’ll walk you through each of your treatment options.
A traditional bridge has two or more crowns and a filler tooth or teeth that are all connected. The crowns keep the bridge in place. The healthy teeth on either side of the dental gap must be altered before the crowns can be cemented over them. The most common form of bridges, this restoration is made of metal, porcelain fused to metal, or ceramics.
Instead of being cemented in place to teeth, this type of bridge is held in place by implants. The dental implants integrate with the jawbone and provide premium support for the replacement teeth. An implant bridge does not require alteration of your existing teeth.
Our goal is to provide structural support to your bite while we help you maintain the integrity of your enamel. Replacing consecutive missing teeth with a dental bridge in Superior provides a wide array of benefits, including:
If you’d like to learn more about dental bridges, don’t hesitate to call our office today! Dr. Doug Clark, III is an experienced dentist in Superior and has been providing dental bridges to patients in need for years. Our restorative dentistry staff is professional and ready to assist you during this vulnerable time. We have a number of other restorative dentistry methods if you’d like to repair any other dental defects, and our cosmetic dentistry services can add brilliance to your beauty.
Just as with any other procedure, we will not begin any kind of treatment until we’ve guaranteed that your mouth has been numbed completely. While a local anesthetic is all that’s necessary to avoid any pain you could feel during the procedure, you may also benefit from some kind of sedative if you have dental anxiety.
The most discomfort you’ll experience will be a little bit of in the days after the treatment, and even this should be handled easily with a little bit of over-the-counter pain medicine.
While partial dentures are sometimes referred to as “removable bridges,” they aren’t really interchangeable. Dental bridges are adhered permanently to the teeth, while partial dentures just clip on and can be removed at any time.
There’s also the fact that dental bridges are really only capable of replacing teeth that are consecutive, while partial dentures can replace any number of teeth anywhere across an arch.
Whether your dental bridge is made of ceramic, composite, or even metal, tooth whitening isn’t going to be effective on it. The materials used in these kinds of restorations are considerably less porous than your enamel, which means that the whitening gel won’t be able to penetrate into it.
If you’re interested in teeth whitening, it’s best to have this done before getting your dental bridges and having the restoration built to match.
Of course, any new restoration is going to feel uncomfortable for a few days while you get used to it. However, we take meticulous impressions of your teeth before sending your designs to the lab. Then experienced professionals work hard to ensure that your restoration is exactly what you’re looking for.
Your restoration is going to match your other teeth very well, so after you’ve spent some time with it, you shouldn’t even notice it in your mouth.
