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.
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.