When you are missing teeth, you have options available for replacing them. Among your options are dental bridges. A dental bridge fills in the gap created when one or more teeth are missing. Your smile can be adversely affected when anterior teeth are missing. When molars or bicuspids are missing, your ability to properly chew your food can be impaired. The more teeth you have missing, the greater the impact on your health.

Dental bridges are permanently fixed dental appliances that help restore your smile or the chewing surfaces of back teeth. They also help support facial muscles. Missing teeth create a gaunt, sunken look around your lips and cheeks. Restoring the missing teeth improves your appearance by filling out those areas again. This can also help you look younger.

Restoration of your missing teeth not only helps enhance your appearance, but in the case of missing molars and bicuspids, it can help your digestive system. Restoring the chewing surface of missing teeth allows you to chew your food into smaller pieces, which aids in digestion and allows the body to absorb more of the nutrients in the food. Swallowing larger chunks of food hinders optimal use of the food’s nutrition.

Advantages of the Dental Bridge

Removable partial dentures are another option for replacing missing teeth. The advantage of bridgework is the permanency and the fact that a bridge is cemented into place. This means it will not move or become dislodged when you are eating or speaking. Nor will it cause discomfort due to food getting underneath the appliance, as can happen with partial dentures.

In addition to enhancing your appearance and allowing you to masticate your food more efficiently, the dental bridge also prevents the teeth on either side of the space from shifting and moving out of alignment. When the space left by a missing tooth is neglected, over time the adjacent teeth will begin to shift out of place, creating food traps and small gaps between the remaining teeth. A dental bridge prevents this from happening.

When you have one or more teeth missing, contact Mint Dental. Dr. Antoinette Liles will conduct an examination and help you determine the best way to replace them.