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Are you missing your beautiful smile with its pearl-like healthy natural color because you have missing or damaged teeth? Today, advanced treatments in modern dentistry offer solutions for this dilemma — dental crowns and bridges. These treatments are prominent today, especially if you are not looking for teeth replacement procedures.

Let’s look at them in detail:

Dental Crowns

Dental crowns are the caps used when an individual's damaged or distorted tooth must be placed on the top of the dental implant. These implants are the fixtures that are fastened to the jawbone below the gums. They act as the anchor to your bone through osseointegration. This treatment can provide reliable support when one is   speaking or eating.

Advantages of a Crown?

• It covers the dental implant.
• It enhances the appearance of the tooth.
• It protects the tooth after a root canal procedure.
• It supports a tooth that has been significantly damaged by decay.
• It can hold a severely cracked or broken tooth together.

Disadvantages of a Crown?

• It could fracture porcelain.
• It tends to have recurrent decay.
• The gum could recess from the crown margin.
• It might require   root canal treatment.
• The color of the crown wouldn’t match the color of the real tooth.

Dental Bridges

Bridges, on the other hand, are solely used for replacing the missing tooth. It consists of two crowns on either side of the missing tooth or teeth and the bridge of replacement teeth rests in the gums where the missing tooth or teeth should be. 

Advantages of a Bridge?

• It can enhance one’s appearance.
• It helps improve speech, provides comfort, and makes you feel natural.
• It improves overall oral health and helps develop   self-esteem and confidence.
• Its costs can be covered in dental insurance.
• It is typically faster to implement than a dental implant where the crown cannot be placed instantly.

Disadvantages of a Bridge?

• It is typically more difficult to clean than a single-tooth dental implant.
• The adjacent teeth are subjected to permanent loss of tooth structure.
• It is generally more expensive than a dental implant.
• It needs continuous maintenance, sometimes even replacement.
• It will need to be replaced once it fails.

Both these methods, bridges and the crowns, are the best ways to maintain your oral health. With either one, you will get fixed artificial teeth that appear and function more like your natural teeth. And if you adopt a healthy oral care routine, these will last from seven to15 years, or even more. 

Want to know more about dental crowns and bridges? Book a consultation with our experienced dentists at Marine Hill Dentistry by calling at  (253) 839-2800 or schedule an appointment online.