Are missing teeth affecting your quality of life? Regain confidence in your smile with a dental bridge from Jacksonville Dental Specialists in Jacksonville, FL. Our expert team specializes in crafting flawless tooth replacements that seamlessly fill the gap left by one or more consecutive missing teeth. With customized treatment plans and personable dental specialists, we ensure highly aesthetic and lasting results tailored to your unique needs.
A dental bridge is a fixed dental restoration used to replace one or more missing teeth by bridging the gap between adjacent teeth.
Before you receive any type of tooth replacement, it’s important to have a consultation with Dr. Aguila or Dr. Nawrocki to determine the most suitable type of bridge for your needs. Our practice offers two distinct dental bridge types and both have different advantages.
Traditional dental bridges consist of pontics (prosthetic teeth) supported by dental crowns attached to adjacent natural teeth. This type of bridge restores aesthetics, chewing function, and prevents adjacent teeth from shifting due to tooth loss. A traditional bridge can be fixed or removable based on your preferences and situation.
Implant bridges are anchored by dental implants surgically placed in the jawbone. This eliminates the need to alter the adjacent teeth. Our implant bridges provide great stability and durability. As an added bonus, they also keep your jawbone strong and healthy through their titanium root replacement.
If left alone, gaps in your teeth can quickly cause more issues like bite misalignment, trouble eating your favorite foods, and decreased confidence in social situations. Choosing dental bridges from Jacksonville Dental Specialists offers numerous benefits, including:
Ready to restore your smile with flawless tooth replacement with Dr. Aguila and Dr. Nawrocki? Contact Jacksonville Dental Specialists today to schedule a consultation. There’s only one way to discover the transformative benefits of a dental bridge, and that’s by getting one.
How long your dental bridge will generally last varies greatly depending on a few factors. That said, you can usually expect your restoration to last anywhere from five to fifteen years. Metal bridges compromise a lot in aesthetics, but they also tend to last longer than their ceramic equivalents.
You can also extend the lifespan of your dental bridges via thorough hygiene. If you make a habit of brushing twice a day, flossing daily, and seeing us often for regular preventive appointments you can expect your dental bridge to stick around for quite a while.
Partial dentures are sometimes called “removable bridges,” though this is a little bit of a misnomer. There are all kinds of significant differences between the two:
As you can imagine, any new feature in your mouth will seem a little bit unusual at first. That said, dental bridges are made from durable, realistic materials. They’ll be meticulously sculpted to fit your mouth, and will be designed to fit easily over the teeth. These things being the case, you should expect your dental bridges to feel completely natural once you’re used to them.
There will be a small gap between your dental bridge and the gums, and it will be necessary to clean under it if you want to keep gum disease at bay. There are a variety of methods to do this, affording you plenty of options to pick one.
First there are floss threaders, which can make it easier to get a piece of dental floss in between the bridge and the gums. You might also be interested in an interdental brush, which is a little bit like a small plastic toothpick. Finally, if you’re willing to make a larger up-front investment, you might want to buy an oral irrigator; these use pressurized water to blast away bacteria and food particles.
Dental bridges are generally designed not to be removed unless done so by your dentist. They’re meant to remain in your mouth for years before needing to be replaced. Removing this prosthetic should not be possible on your own, as it requires modern dental tools used in the dental office. Some healthcare providers refer to partial dentures as “removable bridges,” but this is misleading. While partials are similar in function to dental bridges, the major difference is that they can be removed by the patient whenever they want, while bridges cannot.
Usually, dental bridges can be constructed out of the same materials used in dental crowns. While these prosthetics used to be made from gold or metal alloys as the standard, our team utilizes high-quality ceramics so that patients can enjoy a durable product and more natural-looking results. Metal bridges are generally more durable than metal-free ones, and they are typically used to help replace rear molars since these are the teeth that need to withstand great pressure from chewing. To provide more aesthetically pleasing results for front teeth, tooth-colored bridges are more often used. Our team will discuss the materials that best fit your unique needs so that you can regain the bite you deserve.
To prepare your teeth to fit your dental bridge on top of them, your dentist will first need to numb your mouth so that you don’t feel discomfort. Our team will use a topical anesthetic, but we can also provide sedation dentistry so that you can feel as relaxed as possible during your appointment. Once we’ve prepared and placed your dental bridge, your teeth underneath will likely be slightly sensitive for the following several days. This can be managed with over-the-counter pain medications, but make sure to notify your dentist if any discomfort gets worse. In most cases, dental bridges prevent any other natural teeth from drifting out of place, allowing them to also prevent discomfort later on. If you receive an implant bridge, soreness is also to be expected while you recover from the surgery. Our team will provide you with aftercare guidelines to minimize discomfort.
Based on a person’s needs, a dental bridge can replace one to four consecutively missing teeth. The majority of the time, these prosthetics are used to help replace one or two teeth in a row. This is because the strength and stability of the bridge will depend on its length. The longer it is, the less stable and reliable it becomes, especially if the abutment teeth aren’t strong or healthy. Replacing three or more teeth can raise the risk of failure or complications. Implant bridges, however, can replace more than three teeth with a significantly lower risk of failure since they’re anchored to the jawbone.
