Bridges

When one or more teeth are missing, they can be restored by placing crowns on the teeth next to the gap onto which an extra false tooth is fixed. This is called a bridge and can be made out of normally three or more units. A bridge is cemented in place and cannot be removed by the patient and should be looked after as well as your own natural teeth as underneath your bridge you will still have the roots that keep it secure.

For many years this patient had a front tooth missing for which he had been wearing a partial denture. He was keen for a non-removable solution so we decided to make a bridge to replace the missing tooth.	A 3-unit bridge fills the gap of the missing tooth so the denture is made redundant. The bridge is retained by one tooth on either side of the gap.

In order to make a bridge, we therefore need other teeth around the site of the missing tooth/teeth to be in reasonable condition. Heavily filled adjacent teeth are not a problem but if the neighbouring teeth are mobile because of gum disease then a bridge may not be the best solution. Alternatives to a bridge are dentures (which are removable by the patient) or implants (titanium screws into the jaw bone). We will examine you first and advise you on the best possible solution.

In the upper jaw this patient had 2 front teeth missing, 1 poorly fitting old crown and 1 tooth almost completely decayed away with various lower teeth showing tooth decay as well. Like the patient in the example above this patient was also looking for a fixed solution (not a denture).	A 6-unit bridge was made in the upper jaw after having done a root treatment on the badly decayed left incisor. The lower jaw was easier to sort out with some composite fillings and some general scaling and polishing.