Missing Teeth

Bridgework

A crown is a laboratory made restoration that covers all or the majority of an exposed tooth. Crowns provide additional strength to teeth and are often the best way to save teeth. In addition they can also be used to alter the shape, or colour or orientation of teeth.

A bridge is a series of crowns used to replace one or more missing teeth. It consists of an artificial tooth/teeth anchored to the natural teeth on each side of the gap.

Implants

Implants today can provide solutions to problems that in days gone by were unsalvageable. Many people with missing teeth were faced with no alternative to removable full or partial dentures. In instances of single missing teeth, people have had no choice but to bridge the space [fixed option] or wear a removable denture. Now with implant dentistry being widely practiced in mainstream dentistry we have elegant solutions to overcome these problems.

What is a Dental Implant?

A dental implant is an artificial replacement for a missing tooth root. The implant fixture [fabricated out of titanium] is placed surgically into the bone and allowed to heal and integrate. Because the implant surface is not recognized by the body as being a foreign object the bone heals around the fixture. This relationship then allows the restoring dentist to place crowns or bridgework or dentures on top of this artificial root.

Benefits

• Improved appearance
• Improved comfort and speech
• Ability to eat whatever you want
• Smile with confidence
• Maintain healthy adjacent teeth
• Long term results
• Maintenance of bone
• Improved self-esteem

Dentures

Dentures, also referred to as “false teeth”, are prosthetic replacements for missing teeth. False teeth are most commonly removable but can be fixed to dental implants or in the case of fixed partial dentures be glued to natural teeth in the form of a bridge.

Dentures can either be worn on the top and /or bottom jaw, and can be full dentures [replacing all the teeth on an arch] or partial dentures which replace just one or more missing teeth.

False teeth are typically made out of acrylic teeth [older denture patients may remember the days of porcelain teeth] on an acrylic or metal framework base.

There are a variety of shades of pink acrylic and multiple variations of tooth colour so creating a denture that is natural looking is relatively easily achieved.