How Long does a Dental Bridge Last?
Among the different procedures that can be practiced to replace one or more missing teeth, there are the bridge or the dental implant. The dental bridge is made up of 3 elements, two pillars, i.e. the teeth adjacent to the missing one, joined together to form the dental bridge. One or the other solution will be evaluated by the dentist based on the specific case and the patient's needs. The dental bridge can be fixed or mobile, but this second option is used only as a temporary remedy pending a more stable solution.
How a dental bridge is applied
The procedure for placing a dental bridge is not excessively complex, however it requires all the necessary visits and diagnostic investigations. The first thing to do is to take the patient's dental impressions which will be sent to the laboratory for the realization of the provisional. Once you have had the temporary bridge and after a careful analysis of the teeth that will act as a pillar, the pillars must be properly prepared, that is, they must be filed down to become two abutments, then covered with caps to form the support of the dental bridge. Then a definitive impression is taken which is sent to the dental technician for the execution of the final work.
Once ready, the dental bridge is not fixed immediately, but must be tried on by the patient to verify the precision, the comfort and the color which must be the same as that of the natural teeth to guarantee a good aesthetic result.
If there are no problems, the bridge is definitively cemented in order to avoid infiltrations that would occur with a temporary cement.
Materials
The crowns of the dental bridge can be made of different materials such as ceramic, porcelain or zirconium-ceramic. Generally speaking, among the materials listed above, the most used is ceramic which gives the possibility to create crowns that are aesthetically more similar to natural teeth. Today then with lithium disilicate it is possible to reach very thin thicknesses for which the teeth are filed very little. In this way you avoid having to devitalize them.
How long does a dental bridge last?
On average, a dental bridge can last from 5 to 15 years. Much depends on the skills of the operator who performs the work and on the care and attention that the patient will put in their home oral hygiene. In fact, those who have a dental bridge must carefully wash their teeth after each meal, use dental floss or a brush at least once a day, use the water jet and periodically undergo professional hygiene sessions.
Bridge or dental implant?
The other possibility to replace a missing tooth is a dental implant. Unlike the dental bridge where the two adjacent teeth support the prosthesis, the dental implant involves inserting a titanium root into the maxillary or mandibular bone that acts as a support for the new tooth.
Although today there is a tendency to choose a dental implant surgery for the replacement of a missing tooth, the bridge can be preferred when:
- the teeth that must act as pillars are altered in shape or color and therefore filing them and covering them with capsules would be an advantage;
- the patient does not want to undergo any type of surgery;
- there is not enough bone to support the implant and therefore even complex regenerative maneuvers would be required.