Dental Implant vs Bridge

In the early 1980s, if you were missing a tooth and wanted a non-removable replacement, you would need to get a dental bridge. You would have the teeth adjacent to the missing tooth drilled down for a crown preparation, and had crowns placed on them, with a false tooth suspended between the two crowns.

That technique is still common today, even though it is rapidly falling by the wayside due to the success of dental implants introduced in the early 1980s. With dental implants, we avoid having to drill down the adjacent teeth, which may be intact and healthy, just to anchor a replacement tooth.

Now we place a titanium root form in the bone. This actually gives you back the root structure that was lost when the tooth was removed. When that heals, a tooth is placed on the root form.

Today sometimes this is done even in one step in which the patient actually can have new teeth the very same day!

Advantages of a dental implant over a dental bridge

A dental implant is a much less aggressive treatment. We believe strongly in preserving healthy tooth structure as much as possible. A dental bridge is the antithesis of that goal. Sometimes, when the adjacent teeth are prepared for crowns, they are so traumatized that they also need root canal treatments. As a minimum, they need careful watching for recurrent decay or further problems. And if there is any additional problem with any of the three teeth involved, the entire bridge needs to be re-done.

A dental implant is much easier to clean. The teeth in a bridge are all connected, which makes it impossible to snap floss between them. You can use a floss threader, but that is too much trouble for many people. With a dental implant, you brush and floss normally.

The cost is about the same.

To find out if you are a candidate for a dental implant, give us a call at (888) 688-0068, or click here to visit our free consultation page.