Today, You’ll find an array of treatment options for treating every dental problem. These treatments are highly personalized and readily available in most of the dental clinics. However, such panoramic availability often creates a dilemma of choosing a treatment that would be best for you. And since different individual methods can be applied for one dental problem, it becomes necessary to know about all your options before jumping to a conclusion.
If you have a damaged or missing tooth, your dentist will probably recommend installing a dental bridge or replacing it with a dental implant to fix the issue. Although both methods are more or less designed for serving similar purposes, the two are distinct treatments with their own advantages. Let’s look at both these implants individually to better understand which one of them is the best solution for your problem.
Dental Implants:
Any tooth is held secure and nourished by its root and other underlying nerves and tissues. When the tooth is lost, the underlying structure is exposed to harmful deposits and infections, which can quickly spread to the surrounding teeth.
A dental implant is a synthetic replica of a tooth where a titanium screw is fit in the jaw to act as the root with a protective cover over it.
In a few months, the jawbone fuses with the new root due to the osseointegration process.
Once the implant has completely fused, the cover is removed, and a dental crown is fixed atop it, which gives it the ability to perform as good as a natural tooth would.
These crowns are highly customizable to match the shades and shape of your natural teeth. However, the extent of customization largely depends on the position and visibility of your damaged tooth. The lesser the level of customization, lower will be its cost.
Dental Bridges:
As the name suggests, bridges are prosthetic replacements that are used to bridge a gap created by one or more missing teeth in your jaw. These bridges are often termed as ‘false teeth’ or ‘pontic’.
A pontic is a series of crowns that replicate the lost tooth or teeth, and they are fitted in the gap by anchoring the two end crowns of the bridge over the tooth on both ends of the gap. These teeth used as anchors are called ‘abutment teeth’.
A bridge is recommended for situations when:
- An entire tooth or multiple teeth are lost or removed
- The adjacent teeth are tilting or drifting into the empty space
- The size or positioning of the teeth opposite to the gap is changing
- Your ability to chew or bite food items has degraded significantly
- The jaw bone underneath the gap is shrinking
- Your face and smile looks old and degraded due to the changes in your jawbone
- The most significant advantage implants have over bridges is their durability. An implant, when taken care properly, done regular maintenance can last for a longer duration of time compare to bridge.
- For bridge requires two or more healthy teeth grinded to serve as abutment (post ) for a bridge ,so they are more prone for cavities and endodontic treatment failure.
- The implant procedure is technique sensitive procedure, need through planning, x rays, cbct scans to check condition of bone and surrounding area.
- As multiple steps are involved the cost of dental implants is relatively higher than dental bridges.