Are Dental Implants Better than Bridges?
Discover the top 3 advantages dental implants offer over a bridge.
For many years, patients missing a single tooth or several adjacent teeth were limited to some kind of dental bridge as a replacement. This involved creating a false tooth or teeth to replace what was lost, and supporting this prosthesis with crowns placed on neighboring teeth.
Now, however, patients are increasingly being offered the choice of a traditional bridge or a dental implant to replace their missing teeth. Dental implants consist of a titanium implant peg topped with a crown. You might get one implant for each missing tooth, or, in the case of three or more missing teeth in a row, a pair of implants supporting a multi-tooth restoration similar to a partial denture.
Top 3 Advantages of Dental Implants
If you are facing the decision between a bridge or a dental implant, it is very important not to necessarily make your decision based on price alone. Though dental implants are more expensive, they are superior to bridges in virtually every other aspect. The 3 biggest advantages you will get by choosing dental implants over a bridge include:
Better Bone Health
When a tooth is lost, you lose more than just the ability to chew with that tooth or have a pretty smile. You also lose the functionality that the tooth had been providing beneath the gum line, namely stimulating your bone tissue. Without a living root in place, the bone around a lost tooth will lose density and actually shrink. This can cause all kinds of problems for the neighboring teeth and for your appearance.
Dental implants are the only solution for missing teeth that actually restores the functionality of the lost root. The titanium implant peg actually bonds with the bone in the jaw to create a strong and stable foundation for your replacement tooth.
No Damage to Neighboring Teeth
In order to place a bridge, a dentist has to remove some healthy tooth structure from the teeth that will serve as the anchors for the bridge. This allows the crowns can be placed on them. Besides this deliberate damage to the neighboring teeth, bridges also present the possibility for these teeth to be further weakened by tooth decay or gum disease. This may occur if patients are not extremely careful to keep their bridgework clean, a task that can be difficult.
Dental implants, on the other hand, do not require any damage to neighboring teeth or place patients at any increased risk for tooth decay or gum disease. Dental implants are as easy to clean as a natural tooth.
Longer Service Life
Due to the increased potential for tooth decay, as well as the simple fact that bridges are only as strong as the anchor teeth supporting them, it is not at all uncommon for patients to require repeated bridge repairs or replacements.
Dental implants, on the other hand, can last for decades when properly placed by a qualified implant dentist such as we have at California Dental Group.
Please contact us now to learn more about the benefits of dental implants in your specific case.
