I don’t know why, but I have the feeling that having dental bridges is kinda’ old fashioned. What I mean is that it is not very popular nowadays to have them installed in someone’s mouth.

 

So to start with, what is a dental bridge?

A tooth bridge is a dental restoration that is used to replace a missing tooth by joining adjacent teeth or dental implants. A dental bridge can be installed on the front teeth, although this is not so pretty (this is my personal opinion).

 

Why are these teeth bridges used?

A teeth bridge is often used to restore your smile, your ability to properly chew and speak or bite properly by replacing missing teeth. You might wonder how can a dental bridge work, but it can surely prevent remaining teeth to drift out of position too.

 

What types of dental bridges are available?

Mainly there are 3 main types of dental bridges:

• A traditional bridge (not a city bridge though ) is a a crown for the tooth or implant on both sides of the missing tooth, with a bridge in between. Traditional bridges are the most common in dental practice and are made of either porcelain fused to metal or ceramics.

 

• A cantilever dental bridge is used when only one adjacent tooth is available next to a missing tooth or teeth. With this solution, you end up having a neat fixed bridge.

• Resin-bonded bridge are made of plastic and it is supported by a metal framework. It has metal wings on each side, that are bonded to the existing teeth. Usually this solution is implemented, when a temporary dental bridge is needed. At a further dentist visit this temporary bridge is going to be changed to a permanent bridge for teeth. The reason why these temporary solution is needed is to find out if the patient develops some dental bridge problems.

 

What more can we find out about the dental bridge procedure?

During your first visit, your two adjacent teeth are filed down, and a sample is taken using  a special paste to make an impression of the teeth space where the bridge is needed. This procedure is pretty much the same as the dental crown practice. Using this sample, the dental bridge is fabricated by a technician or an automatic software driven machine.

At your second visit, your new, permanent bridge is checked and adjusted, to ensure proper fit. In case you are receiving a traditional bridge, it is temporarily cemented in place by the dentist for some weeks of time in order to be able to do some further adjustments if needed. If everything is found alright, the bridge can be permanently cemented to your adjacent teeth.

 

How much does dental bridge cost?

The cost of dental bridge varies depending on the type/material that the bridge is made of and the area where the procedure is performed. The dental bridge price can increase big time in case you are choosing a golden or a gold-plated one. Dental insurance is most likely paying part of the tooth bridge cost, but don’t forget to check your own insurance and individual dental plan.

 A shiny golden brigde someone?

Do you recognize easily if someone has bridges for teeth? Is it ugly? Or how can you tell that someone has tooth bridges?

When installing a bridge teeth must be filed down drastically even if they were totally healthy before. So this is why I find this procedure kinda’ old fashioned.

For most of us a tooth crown sounds like something painful. Why would anyone like to install some crowns on teeth? How come that tooth crowns cost so much? Here is some info in case you wonder:

What is a dental crown?

So what is a tooth crown? In general dental crowns are tooth-shaped “caps” that are placed over the teeth – covering them to restore their shape and size, strength, and to improve their appearance.

 

How is the dental crown procedure done?

First of all your teeth, that are to be crowned are filed down along the chewing surface and sides to make room for the dental crowns.

After reshaping the tooth, your dentist will use a special paste to make an impression of the tooth. These impressions are sent to a dental laboratory where the crowns are manufactured. Getting a dentistry crown back from the laboratory usually takes at least a week.

During the tooth crown procedure, these teeth crowns are cemented into place by using a special dental adhesive for crowns. After the dentist crown installation, the over-floating dental crown cement is removed. I can tell you, this is quite an unpleasant procedure (Iknow this by experience).

Sometimes a temporary dental crown is needed, that is constructed from a chemical-cure composite material that allows easy removal when fitting the final crown on tooth. These temporary crowns are replaced later by permanent tooth crowns that are constructed by a dental laboratory.

In some cases a so called root canal crown is installed in order to give the tooth additional strength. Yes, you can pretty much state that root canal and crown is a very often experienced combination.

It is very usual to experience dental crown pain after this dental practice, but usually it disappears after some days as you get used to it.

 

What kind of materials can crowns be made of?

Permanent crowns can be made from all metal, porcelain-fused-to-metal, resin, or ceramic. Applying golden or titanium inner layer is quite usual too in order to prevent allergic gum reactions to metal. Some people prefer having full gold tooth crown or nickel or chromium crowns for teeth. Basically you can choose from a wide selection, such as porcelain crowns, cerec crowns, zirconium crowns, procera crowns and ceramic crowns, that can make the cost of dental crown pretty high.

How much do dental crowns cost?

As mentioned before, the dental crown cost depends on the material used. A simple porcelain crown is much cheaper than a gold crown tooth for example, but on the other hand who is willing to get a gold dental crown nowadays? No ordinary person with an ordinary life, I believe. For some of us, the tooth crown cost is just too much and therefore we choose having the decayed tooth extracted instead. Remember that you’ll always pay more for a zirconia / zirconuim crown or procera crown, than a porcelain bonded crown such as porcelain jacket crown, or other all ceramic crowns. These dentist crowns are all very expensive, but you shouldn’t only choose after the cost of a crown, but make sure that you take eventual allergies into consideration too.

In case you wonder, read more about crowns and bridges here.

 

To me, filing down your teeth means a total damage that you are doing, and makes this procedure completely irreversible. This is why I wonder: Is it worth destroying your teeth for it? Do you have any experience with tooth crowns?