Dental Bridges
A dental bridge is used to close or bridge the gaps in your smile when you have a missing tooth or teeth. A dental bridge is made up of a false tooth (Pontic) held in place by crowns attached to existing teeth on either side. This false tooth (Pontic) replaces the missing tooth, thus filling the gap.
There are four types of dental bridges
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1. Traditional Dental Bridge
This consist of a false tooth/teeth being held in place by the dental crowns cemented to adjacent teeth. This is the most popular type of dental bridge and can be used where there are existing teeth on either side of the missing tooth/teeth. -
2. Cantilever Dental Bridge
This is similar to the traditional type but the false tooth (Pontic) is only held in place by a crown cemented on one adjacent tooth. In this case you only need to have one tooth next to the missing tooth space. -
3. Maryland Dental Bridge
This is similar to the tradtional dental bridge in the sense that the false tooth replacing the missing tooth is anchored on two adjacent teeth, but in this case, the anchor is either made of metal or porcelain framework which is bonded to the anchor teeth. -
4. Implant-supported Dental Bridge
This type of dental bridge, utilises implants as support as opposed to crowns or framework. Typically, one implant is surgically placed for every missing tooth and these implants hold the bridge in position.