Dental Bridges

Springfield, Holyoke, Longmeadow, and Wilbraham, MA Dentist

Have you lost one or more teeth? Perhaps you have been using dentures and have become tired of the daily removal and cleaning process, or perhaps the dentures no longer fit comfortably.

The loss of a tooth can occur suddenly in an accident or trauma, or gradually through poor dental hygiene. Regardless of why tooth loss occurs, going through life with a gap in your smile can be both mentally and physically disconcerting. At Baystate Dental, our team of trained and experienced cosmetic dentists can fill the gap with a well-designed dental bridge and get you smiling again.

How Dental Bridges Work

A dental bridge is a replacement tooth or teeth anchored in place by the adjacent teeth. The adjacent, healthy teeth (also called abutment teeth) receive dental crowns and a replacement tooth (also called a pontic) is attached to the dental crowns. A dental laboratory creates each part of the dental bridge and crowns based on the specifications we give them, so the end result is natural-looking, comfortable and fully functional. At Baystate Dental we offer metal -free bridges as well as the more traditional type that uses metal attachments.

Traditional dental bridges use two adjacent teeth as anchors. However, if you have no tooth next to the gap on one side, a cantilever bridge is used. It is attached to two teeth on one side and projects like a cantilevered balcony from a building.

Another option is the Maryland bonded dental bridge, which uses artificial teeth on a plastic framework with wings that are bonded to the back of existing teeth.

Why Dental Bridges are Important

A dental bridge can avert the chain-reaction of dental problems that can occur when a tooth is lost but not replaced:

• The surrounding teeth can begin to shift, losing their alignment and leading to problems with your bite (TMD – Temporomandibular Joint Disorder)
• Gum tissue will shrink down into the gap left in the jawbone by the missing tooth root
• Bone tissue may also shrink to fill that bone gap
• You may have trouble cleaning the teeth that have shifted, which can cause further tooth loss through the advancement of gum disease

Besides all this, the tooth opposing the missing tooth can start to extrude from its socket and the tooth gap can cause difficulty with chewing and speaking

Please visit our Questions About Your Dental Bridge page for more information.

If you are tired of hiding your smile because of a missing tooth, please contact the dentists at Baystate Dental in East Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Wilbraham, West Springfield and Springfield, Massachusetts today to arrange an initial dental bridge consultation.