January 21, 2021
Dental crowns and tooth bridges are two of the most popular prosthetic dental procedures to restore missing and damaged teeth.
With crowns and bridges, you get the correct bite, smile, and denture shape.
What is the difference between them, advantages, limitations, and suitability are what we will discuss here?
What is a Dental Crowns?
Crowns are caps placed on damaged or artificially implanted teeth. It is used individually on each tooth. It covers most parts of it above the gums.
Crowning is a restoration technique for a tooth that protects and envelops it. Caps are made from a hard material, stronger than actual or synthesized ones.
A dentist may use capping for several reasons.
Advantages of Dental Crown
Why does one require a crown?
Well, it is one prosthetic technique that provides an adequate solution to loads of dental issues. Have a look.
Broken Tooth
When a tooth is severely cracked, broken, or fractured, it does not contribute to biting or chewing.
In fact, there is the risk of it breaking further. If the truth is healthy otherwise, a good dentist would not advise extraction.
Crowns hold a broken tooth together and make it useful in munching.
The Tooth with Significantly Large Fillings
Crowns help support those pearls that have decayed a lot and have been filled multiple times.
Too much filling makes the tooth weak and reduces its life. Capping gives support and long life.
After a Root Canal Treatment
After a root canal treatment(RCT) a tooth functions fine but becomes lifeless.
Were the RCT teeth to develop cavities or abnormalities the patient wouldn’t know. Cap protection is a must for its longevity.
As a Support for a Dental Bridge
For installing bridges to fill gaps, the crowns act as pillars for the installation.
To Cover a Dental Implant
When a specialist implant dentist installs synthetic or artificial teeth, he needs to cap them for durability. Caps provide sturdiness and safety.
As a Cover for Worn-Out Teeth
Very often, your pearls get worn away with age, or due to grinding action. Crowns make them as good as new!
To Improve Appearance
These dental devices can look just as good as they sound. They come in various colors and shapes enhancing your smile!
Dental crowns are a sound option that lasts pretty long- 5-15 years or more. It makes teeth safe, intact and protected.
What is a Dental Bridge?
A bridge is a customized replacement for filling the space where one or multiple teeth are missing. It restores the biting mechanism and shape of the face.
These are made of metal, ceramics, or a combination of the two. At Kirkland Premier Dentistry, we discuss the material type with you and suggest what is best suited for your mouth.
Advantages of Bridges
Bridges have been an indispensable part of dentistry forever. Although implants are becoming increasingly popular now, dental bridges have many advantages as well.
Your dentist may use them with implants as a combination. Or, he may suggest crowning to put it in place.
In some cases, keeping esthetics in mind, they provide a better solution than implants. It all depends on the health of the adjacent teeth where the bridge is to be placed.
Here are a few advantages of going for them:-
- Tooth bridging provides a quick and satisfying treatment, giving you new and natural type teeth to eat normally.
- They maintain the shape of your face and the lip line.
- Tooth bridges are small, light in weight and make munching easier.
- They restore your smile, speech, pronunciation, and youthful looks.
- It is easy to adapt to them and is comfortable.
- The adjoining teeth also get anchored and their movement is curbed by the bridge.
- The procedure distributes the biting force evenly across the entire dental structure.
Maintain gum and dental hygiene and your bridge can last pretty long 10-15 years. Two to three appointments are enough for it and if you have a dentist open on weekends, it is very quick.
While implants only involve a missing tooth, bridging is the best option if the adjoining teeth have big fillings and might require caps in the future.
When a tooth has been missing for long period, the gum and bone would have shrunk.
You may need other procedures prior to implantation. A bridge might be the best solution there. Your dentist can properly advise you on it.
The Outlook
While crowns can protect and reconstruct your teeth besides covering cosmetic flaws, bridges cover the gaps in between teeth and restore the chewing mechanism.
Bridges are therapeutic as well as aesthetic – they beautify your face, smile, and lend good quality to speech and mouthing of words.
For any kind of dental emergency, feel free to contact us online or call the office.
