Faith Cousins DDS
General Dentistry located in Silver Spring, MDMissing teeth leave unsightly holes in your smile and can significantly impair your oral health. If you’re missing a tooth, you should consider replacing it with a bridge. The team at Faith Cousins, DDS, in Silver Spring, Maryland, provides patients with high-quality crowns that make their smiles beautiful and functional again. Call the office or book a visit online today to get started with your bridge.
Bridges Q & A
What are the dangers of missing teeth?
Missing a tooth or teeth from your smile is more than just a cosmetic concern. Your mouth needs all of its teeth to function properly. When one or more is missing, it throws off the balance of the entire system.
Your smile is susceptible to falling out of alignment when you’re missing a tooth since the rest of your teeth can begin to shift and drift toward the empty space. A missing tooth also leaves the force in your bite unevenly distributed. This puts excess pressure on certain areas of your smile, which can lead to premature wear-and-tear on the remaining teeth in those areas.
Lastly, one of the vital functions of your teeth is to provide your jawbone with healthy stimulation. When you’re missing a tooth, your jawbone loses stimulation in that area. An understimulated jawbone eventually deteriorates, or resorbs, leading to bone loss and a changing facial appearance.
What is a bridge?
A bridge is an appliance that replaces a missing tooth or teeth. The artificial tooth, or pontic, is attached to crowns on either side that are fitted to the teeth adjacent to your missing tooth.
If your teeth can’t support crowns, there are alternative bridges that can replace your missing tooth, like a cantilever bridge and a Maryland bonded bridge.
Bridges are made from porcelain or composite resin, both of which are strong and durable materials that have a similar color and translucency as your natural tooth enamel. This means that your bridge blends in beautifully with the rest of your teeth and looks just like a part of your natural smile.
What’s involved in getting a bridge?
The team at Faith Cousins, DDS, can install your bridge in two easy office visits. During your first visit, your dentist shaves some enamel from your abutment teeth, or the teeth immediately adjacent to your missing tooth. They take an impression of your smile once your teeth are prepared, and send that impression to a lab that makes your bridge.
You wear a temporary restoration while you wait for your permanent bridge to come back. When your permanent bridge is ready, your dentist puts it on your teeth, checks that the fit and bite are comfortable, then seals it in place with dental cement. You leave the office with a beautifully restored smile that you’ll be proud to share.
Schedule your visit at Faith Cousins, DDS, by calling the office or booking online to get your bridge today.