Dental Bridges - Lane DDS

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Lane & Associates
Family Dentistry

Dental Bridges

Providing the best dental and orthodontic care to families and individuals in Raleigh and across all of North Carolina for more than 40 years.

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What is a dental bridge?

Have questions about dental bridges? Our dentists took some time to share information and answer common patient questions to help educate about dental bridges, how they work, and the role they play in restorative dentistry. View the table of contents below to learn more or find your question and get an answer from one of our dentists!

The following content was provided by Dr. Don Bailey, General Dentist, and has been medically reviewed for accuracy. Some relevant links have been added to audio transcripts to provide resources for additional information.

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What is a dental bridge?

Answer provided by Dr. Don Bailey. Transcript included below.

A dental bridge is something that a dentist is using to refer to a false tooth that’s fixed in place by crowning the teeth on either side of the missing space. Sometimes people will use a dental bridge to refer to a partial denture, which is different. A partial denture is a false tooth that’s held in on a frame that’s taken in and out of the mouth. A partial denture, a person would wear when they’re awake and take out when they sleep. A dental bridge is fixed in place permanently.

What are the types of dental bridges?

Answer provided by Dr. Don Bailey. Transcript included below.

The traditional dental bridge is one that’s capping the entire tooth on either side with a crown. So you’re fully covering the tooth on either side, or teeth on either side, sometimes with a crown that covers the entire tooth. That’s something that’s meant to be a permanent long lasting type of bridge.

Dental bridges vs. Dental implants

Answer provided by Dr. Don Bailey. Transcript included below.

Dr. Don Bailey:
The best way to think about bridges versus implants is … you’re better off thinking of the bridge tooth as a false tooth that’s held in place by using support from either side. But with the implant you’re actually going to put a tooth that’s anchored back in with a root type system, like the original natural tooth had. So instead of having a root there, there’ll be a titanium implant that is embedded into the bone of the ridge just like the original tooth was. So you’re not using teeth on either side for support at all.

How long do dental bridges last?

Answer provided by Dr. Don Bailey. Transcript included below.

The literature shows that bridges last 10 to 20 years. The actual material of the bridge itself can last a very long time. The reason that bridges can last a shorter amount of time is you’ve connected three teeth together and so they’re a little more difficult to get under and clean then it would be to clean with natural teeth. So sometimes people just aren’t careful to get underneath and clean and they can be more prone to decay underneath the bridge.

What causes dental bridges to fall out?

Answer provided by Dr. Don Bailey. Transcript included below.

Usually if a dental bridge falls out, it’s because decay has entered in under the bridge. So there’s the space between the bridge and the gum where plaque can collect and a toothbrush can’t clean it out. So a person with a bridge would have to be a little extra diligent to get underneath there to clean. There’s flossing aids that the same people that have braces that they use that help them get underneath their bridge, like floss threaders and super floss. They’re just designed to kind of give floss a stiff in, kind of like a shoe lace has, so that you can feed the floss underneath the bridge and then clean by shimmying it back and forth. That’s what you would want to do to clean. For people who can’t, or don’t, sometimes decay will develop underneath the bridge. And once one of those teeth on either end decays enough, the bridge would fall out.

Why do I need an implant for a dental bridge?

Answer provided by Dr. Don Bailey. Transcript included below.

Most people don’t understand what the implant is. I’ll kind of go into that. The implant is just a platform to support something else. Most of the time that we’re doing implants, we’re attaching a crown to that afterwards. But occasionally orthodontists are using implants to give them an extra anchorage point, and we use implants to support dentures and partial plates and things like that. So the implant itself is just a platform, then we attach something on top of it.