Used to fill missing teeth, dental bridges don’t only help to restore your smile – they also help to reduce the risk of problems caused by missing teeth. Bridges are attached to adjacent teeth or the abutment teeth via crowns, creating stability and providing a permanent replacement for missing teeth. While you may assume that this procedure is strictly aesthetic, there are many reasons that a dental bridge can help protect your oral health in the short term as well as long term.
Whether you have a broken tooth that needs to be extracted or one that needs to be filed down dramatically due to your bite, your dentist will most likely recommend dental bridges. This will ensure that you do not lose out on a chance to retain your smile. It also means that you won’t have to worry about teeth shifting in your jaw due to a gap.
Why exactly is it best to consider dental bridges rather than leaving the gap as it is? Let’s take a look…
Correct Missing Teeth with Dental Bridges
There are a number of potential problems caused by missing teeth. Luckily, dental bridges can easily address these issues to avoid them completely. Some of the most common issues caused by missing teeth include the following:
- Drifting. Teeth tend to move to the front of the mouth, in a process known as drifting. If there is a gap, drifting can cause the surrounding teeth to move forward. The result is an uneven smile caused spacing. Drifting and tilting can also cause bone loss, pain and even loss of teeth. Spaces created also allow food stuff to become trapped in these areas leading to decay. Bridges help to correct this issue, preventing drifting and ensuring that your teeth remain straight without the risk of a bad or imbalanced bite (occlusion) and other complications such as decay.
- Over-eruption of teeth. A tooth will erupt until it touches and functions against something in the opposing dental arch. The result when this happens is that teeth that don’t occlude over-erupting instead. This in turn leads to dysfunction and even gum disease, which in turn leads to further tooth loss and pain in the joints.
- Stress on surrounding teeth. The shifting and pressure of a gap in your jaw results in stress being placed on the teeth next to missing teeth. This in turn causes problems with smiling, speech, chewing and other functions. It also puts you at greater risk of gum disease and caries or decay and stress on the temporomandibular joint(tmj).
Ultimately, the risks of missing teeth are serious enough to cause serious health problems. The best way to prevent complications from broken or lost teeth is to have it bridged as soon as possible.
Here at Gateway Dental, we offer high quality dental bridges in Durban that are fitted professionally in our comfortable, inviting practice. Our dentists are fully trained to provide you with the best standard of patient care, from your initial booking all the way through to after-care. We also offer child-friendly dentistry for our younger patients. To learn more about our services, or to book your appointment to fit dental bridges in Durban, simply contact our practice today.
