Dental Bridges have had their day.

September 22, 2008

Did you know that dental bridges have been around for over a century?

Now I’m not one to decry something simply because its getting old - for example, I do love old cars (as friends will testify!), but how many of us would drive a 100 year old car as everyday transport? Wouldn’t that be uneconomic, wouldn’t it damage the environment?

Just like having dental bridges fitted, as it turns out.

cars

The costs add up

The problem is, a bridge relies totally on the teeth either side for its support, and those teeth have to be drilled down to pegs would you believe.

So, installing the dental bridge actually weakens the adjoining teeth, and then to add insult to injury, the bridge leans on them for the rest of its life…..the dental bridge is ‘parasitic’. Bad for its environment.

The extra loads that that bridge imparts means those teeth are much more likely to fail in the long term……a single tooth loss leads to having 2 or 3 teeth missing…the long term costs go up.

Hardly an elegant modern solution

People should also know that with a bridge, the bone and gum underneath continues to shrink slowly over time.

At best this leaves a ‘dip’ in the gum above the bridge tooth and at worst a black hole (gap) appears so that everyone you smile at knows exactly where your false tooth is!

Dental Implants are the answer

The humble dental implant solves all these issues: It stands alone without interfering with its neighbours.

Over and above that, our bone loves the titanium surface of an implant tooth - and once an implant is inserted under the gum and into the bone, then the bone will not shrink like it does with a bridge.

The aesthetic and cost implications of implant teeth are just too good to ignore.

Let us retire the bridge, and give it the rest it deserves.

Posted by Andrew | Filed Under Dental Implants, Dentures, Teeth replacement | Leave a Comment

Lower dentures are utterly useless

April 14, 2008

I well remember my first denture lecture as a keen young trainee: The denture-department head stood up in front of us at the top of Guy’s Tower and said:

“Before I begin, don’t you lot ever forget one thing: dentures are only ever better than nothing at all!“.

And this from the head of the Prosthetics dept. (the top specialist in false teeth - ed.)

Lower full dentures are bottom of the barrell.

With the tongue muscles getting in the way the poor old lower denture hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of staying put. Meanwhile the patient struggles to speak and eat while it jumps around in the mouth with a life of its own.

Patients can’t eat solid food, they can’t speak for embarrassment, and often the movement of the denture causes friction-sores on the gum. What utter misery.

What’s more, there is absolutely nothing the concerned practitioner can do about it. Try as he might, adjusting adjusting adjusting, remaking, relining and rebasing - it just won’t fix it.

Miserable patient, miserable dentist.

But aren’t the alternatives too expensive?

Not necessarily. Enter the well proven implant-retained-denture.

Essentially the patient’s own denture can be modified with special fixings which then attach to 2 or 4 implants inserted in the lower jaw. The real beauty of this method is that it keeps the cost right down. There is no expensive bridgework and only 2 or 4 implants are required to hold that denture right where it is needed.

The treatment costs a fraction of implant-bridge treatment where up to 6 implants may be required, (coupled to 10 or 12 porcelain bridge units bonded to a metal framework.)

The implant retained denture can be removed for cleaning, but when placed in the mouth it is fixed solidly. This method can also be used in the upper jaw but more implants are required - but it’s not as great a problem as these useless lower dentures.

I’m sure that patients should rather be worrying about where to go out to eat!

Posted by Andrew | Filed Under Dental Implants, Dentures | Leave a Comment