Dental Implant vs Dental Bridge
Compared to people who needed replacement teeth 30 years ago, modern dentistry has offered serious improvements in treatment options and their longevity. After the dentist removes your diseased or damaged tooth, the dentist wants to ensure the health of your gums and the surrounding teeth. And these may be important to you too, but a complete and healthy smile will give you more confidence. After your tooth removal, you and the dentist will discuss your treatment plan options for tooth replacement. The two most common choices will start with a bridge or a poulsbo dental implant. While dental implants are the newer option, implants are not the right choice for everyone so a bridge may be the best option to consider. First you need to talk to the dentist about when you lost the tooth and why you lost the tooth.
Practical Reasons for Both
Before a Swedish company had success in using titanium to fuse with the jaw bone In the past, a bridge was your only choice to complete the gap between existing teeth to replace the missing tooth. The dentist needs to prepare the adjacent teeth to the missing tooth and in order to do this, the dentist removes most of the enamel to ensure the bridge adheres to your mouth. When the dentist uses an implant, no other teeth need to be affected and the implanted tooth is stronger and will remain in place longer than a bridge remains cemented in place. The dentist may encourage you to consider a bridge if the teeth next to your missing tooth are also damaged, have large fillings or will likely need a crown in the future. If your tooth has been missing for a long period of time, the gum and jaw bone may have started to recede to the point where you will need to have bone and gum tissue grafting to be even considered for an implant. These grafting procedures require recovery time and do not ensure that you will be a guaranteed candidate for a dental implant.
Changes in Your Oral Care Routine
Your at home routine will experience the least amount of change with an implant. Dental bridges are created by connecting three or more crowns to fill in the missing tooth or teeth. With the cemented connections in place, brushing and flossing around your bridge will be difficult but keeping your gums healthy is critical. The dentist can work with you on special techniques to work around your bridge like threading the floss under the false tooth. Implants replace individual teeth without any cementing to surrounding teeth, so you can care for your implant the same way that you would all your other teeth.
Durability
Bridges are not as durable as dental implants; dental implants can last a lifetime. Bridges usually need repair or replacement after ten or more years. Bridges are dependent on natural teeth to remain in place so if the health of your surrounding teeth start to fail, your bridge will fail.
Dental Bridge vs. Implant Cost
Upfront, a dental implant will cost more than a bridge, but if the bridge needs to be replaced every ten years, the dental implant is more cost effective over time.
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