Crowns & Bridges

With incredible efficiency and beautiful aesthetics, your natural teeth are designed to help you chew and smile with incredible efficiency and confidence. As one of our favorite treatments, crowns and bridges can fully restore damaged and missing teeth to their maximum beauty and performance.

Sometimes, we can use crowns and bridges to prevent damage, more extensive and costly dental work, and even tooth loss.

For example, we run the risk of nerve damage if a larger filling deteriorates. This could even fracture the root. Every high-risk tooth needs preventive treatment to save you money and time … and the tooth itself!

What Is A Crown?

A crown (sometimes called a cap) can be made of stainless steel, gold, porcelain… They’re strong and generally last for about 10 years or longer if you take good care of them by keeping your usual, regular home care routine.

 

 As DentaBRIT, we will prepare the tooth so our laboratory can create a custom-fitted crown that looks beautiful and functions like your real tooth. Once we permanentlyaffix the new crown into place, your smile will look, feel, and work exactly as nature  designed it to.

  What is a Bridge?

 Bridges close the gap left by one or more missing teeth by using a combination of  crowns and artificial teeth. It restores the look of your smile and redistributes the workload amongst your teeth more evenly.

 There are several different kinds of bridges so when you require one, we’ll talk about options with you that will provide you with the best solution. And, similar to crowns, if you take proper care of your bridge by flossing and brushing every day, it should last for about 10 years or longer.

 

What Happens When You Lose A Tooth?

 

Many of us, during our adult lives, will lose a tooth to injury, decay, or gum disease. When that happens, chewing forces can shift front to back and side to side. This can cause teeth to move, shift, even flare out, causing unwanted spaces. It can be a domino effect that can seriously alter the look of your smile, jawline, and face. When teeth are not replaced, wrinkles and lines can also form, causing premature ageing. You’ll also lose bone structure in your jaw, which is why face changes may occur. It is for all these reasons, crown and bridge treatment is one option we recommend when teeth are lost.

As DentaBRIT we can restore and improve your smile using a combination of crowns and bridges to support or even replace lost teeth.

How To Care For And Maintain Your Crowns And Bridges

Crowns and bridges cover most of the tooth surface, but it’s the area you cannot see that offers the greatest potential for problems. Where the crown meets your natural tooth, usually at or below the gum line, is called the margin. The margin usually has a small ridge where plaque and bacteria may gather. If even the slightest amount of decay develops under your crown, it can progress unchecked as normal radiographs cannot see through a crown. That’s why an excellent home care routine is required, both brushing twice a day and flossing once a day.

It’s also important to remove any plaque that may build up between the artificial teeth and the gums to prevent inflammation, bad tastes, and bad breath. This is easily done with floss that has been adapted to cleaning bridges and we’ll show you the best approach for your smile. Irrigation devices can also be helpful.

Quick Crown & Bridge Recap

• Replace up to three missing teeth in a row at any location in your mouth (incisors or molars)
• Enable you to speak more clearly
• Help you feel more confident
• Restore your ability to eat the foods you enjoy
• Increase the variety of foods you can choose to eat
• Help to maintain face shape by supporting your cheeks, eliminating that “sunken” look
• Help plump your lips by replacing teeth in the front of your mouth
• Distribute chewing forces so that your remaining natural teeth or other restorations don’t have increased work, wear, and tear
• Stop remaining teeth from drifting into the space left by the missing tooth
• Increase your smile power
• Last for decades with correct care

 

Crowns and bridges are one of the most popular restorations we place, with literally millions being worn by Brits. Because of the modern materials available to dentists and denturists these days, they’re beautiful, natural-looking, and undetectable. We’ve placed hundreds of bridges over the years so you can feel comfortable knowing your restoration will fit well, look amazing, and help you obtain optimal nutrition. Adequate time spent with proper maintenance will lead to years of crown and bridge service.

Fill Gaps Caused By 1 To 3 Missing Teeth

A dental bridge restores the appearance and health of your mouth by covering spaces with a false tooth supported by either dental implants, your natural teeth, or a combination of both. Sometimes referred to as a ‘fixed partial denture’, bridges are bonded or cemented to your teeth and do not need to be removed to sleep or to clean them. Filling tooth gaps is important, not just for appearances, but for your long-term oral health. Missing teeth can make it difficult to speak or chew food and with a gap, other teeth are free to shift around.

Long-Lasting Benefits Of Dental Bridges

A missing tooth or teeth can leave us feeling self-conscious and uncomfortable. A dental bridge is a great way get your smile looking and feeling normal again, but it also offers long term benefits for your other teeth and the bone health of your mouth. To sum it up, here are the advantages of a dental bridge.

These are the obvious advantages because they affect us right now. Feel and look normal again. Smile and eat with confidence and get back the smile you know and love. Missing teeth just don’t feel great and sometimes gaps make it difficult or painful to speak or eat. Dental bridges are a long-lasting solution to discomfort caused by missing teeth, more than ten years with advised care.

Tooth Health

Your teeth support each other and contribute to your facial structure. Missing teeth can alter your bite and leave space for other teeth to shift around. A dental bridge blocks teeth from shifting around reducing the risk of decay, periodontal disease, jaw pain and TMJ disorder caused by rogue teeth.

Bone Health

Healthy, stable teeth encourage healthy jawbones. As our dental health diminishes so does the health of bone and tissues that support our teeth. Stabilizing your dental health with a dental bridge will slow the rate of bone loss from your missing teeth.

Dental crowns make up an essential part of restorative dentistry, and can greatly improve the strength, appearance, and longevity of your teeth.

The Process Of Getting A Crown

Examining and preparing the tooth

As with any other kind of dental treatment, everything starts with the dental examination, during which the doctor will check and clean your teeth so they are prepared for an easy fit. If the tooth is broken or severely damaged by decay, we will remove the damaged areas so the dental crown can do its work protecting the tooth from further decay.

Shaping the Crown

Next, with the help of dental putty, we will take an impression of your teeth that will be used to construct full porcelain crowns. You will then be provided with a temporary dental crown that will be fitted onto your teeth until your following appointment. If you are missing a tooth and wish to replace it with a dental implant, we will take an impression of the implant and the surrounding teeth. Our lab will use the impression to manufacture your own custom crown.

Placing the Crown

At your second appointment, we will remove your temporary crown and replace it with a permanent crown. The crown will be secured using durable dental cement or a hidden screw. To complete the process, we will polish your crown and make any necessary adjustments to ensure your comfort and security