A dental bridge is often prescribed to address minor cases of tooth loss, including between one and three lost teeth in a row. Your Woodland Hills, CA, dentist always takes steps to ensure your prosthetic not only looks natural, but fits comfortably and lasts for many years to come. But what makes them look so natural?
The Dangers of Minor Tooth Loss
How does losing one tooth impact a smile so negatively? Well, the resulting gap could cause the teeth on either side to begin drifting from position, leading to dental misalignment. Poor dental alignment not only harms your smile’s overall appearance, but increases the risk of tooth decay and gum disease too. Others may develop bite imbalance and pressure on their jaw joints, which could increase the chances of both TMJ disorder and bruxism, two jaw joint disorders linked to headaches and migraines, jaw pain, and even damaged smiles. You could also develop problems eating your favorite foods, or simply feel embarrassed about your appearance and avoid social situations. Many of these issues could be linked to further tooth loss as well!
Crafting Your New Smile
To create a bridge, we start by preparing your smile. We will need to remove structure from the teeth on either side of the gap in your smile. Afterward, we can take detailed impressions and measurements to begin designing and crafting your prosthetic. The bridge will consist of your new teeth with crowns attached to each end. We may create them from ceramic and other lifelike materials, which not only absorb bite forces, but can be shaded to blend with your smile seamlessly. We place the crowns on the prepared teeth and anchor the new ones in place. With proper care and attention, your new prosthetic could last between 10 and 15 years!
Securing Them with Implant Dentistry
While crown-secured options are very effective, we can also use dental implants. This means we don’t need to remove structure from surrounding teeth, as we will insert dental implants into the jaw and attach the crowns on the bridge to them instead. Since dental implants act as new tooth roots and stimulate the growth of jawbone structure, your jaw ridge won’t change shape over time and the prosthetic could last much longer, decades in some cases. If you have any questions about addressing tooth loss, then contact our team today to learn more.
Do You Have a Missing Tooth?
For people with missing teeth, we have solutions that look natural and help return your smile to a more complete and beautiful state. For more information on our solutions for missing teeth, please schedule a consultation by calling Woodland Hills Dental Arts in Woodland Hills, CA today at 818-347-5124. We also proudly welcome patients from Thousand Oaks, Westlake, and all surrounding communities.