4 Types of Dental Bridges Explained

There’s no reason for that gap in your smile to remain there permanently. Today, you have several options for replacing missing teeth. You can get dentures, but they may not feel too comfortable at first. You can get dental implants, but that means having to undergo oral surgery. Or, you can get a fixed dental bridge.

This option secures your replacement tooth or teeth in your mouth, giving you a full smile that looks and feels just like natural teeth. Dr. Sujay Trivedi, Dr. Michael C. Westcott, and our team at Family Dental Care offer dental bridge restorations right here at our office in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

Bridges give you a convenient, long-lasting way to restore your smile. If you’re interested in getting a bridge, though, you’ll first need to find out which type might be right for you. Let’s explore your four main options: 

Traditional bridge

The most common type of bridge, a traditional bridge, requires you to have strong, healthy teeth on either side of the gap in your smile. This way, Dr. Westcott or Dr. Trivedi can use those abutment teeth to secure your bridge in place.

The process starts by preparing the teeth on either side of your gap for crowns. Then, we create your customized bridge, which includes your replacement teeth connected to a crown on each side. By cementing the crowns to the prepared abutment teeth, Dr. Trivedi or Dr. Wescott secures your replacement teeth in your mouth. 

Cantilever bridge

If you only have teeth on one side of your gap, don’t worry. You can still get a cantilever bridge, which attaches to the single abutment tooth to hold your replacement tooth in place. 

Maryland bridge

This type of dental bridge works a lot like a traditional bridge in that it uses the teeth on either side of your gap to support the bridge. But rather than capping those teeth with crowns, a Maryland bridge gets held in place by bonding wings to the back of your abutment teeth. Those wings support the replacement tooth or teeth. 

Also known as a resin-bonded fixed partial denture, this type of bridge is most commonly used for front teeth replacement or for younger people whose jaws are still growing. 

Implant-supported bridge

This type of bridge lasts the longest but it requires oral surgery. Rather than using surrounding teeth to anchor the bridge, it relies on dental implants. These are artificial tooth roots (titanium posts) that get surgically implanted into your jawbone.

Getting an implant-supported bridge takes time. First, you get the oral surgery to place the implants. Next, you wait several months for your jawbone to heal and fuse to those implanted posts. Once this process, called osseointegration, is complete, your implant-supported bridge is fixed to your implants. 

If you have a gap in your smile, you have options. To figure out which bridge type might be best for you, call our Family Dental Care office in West Palm Beach, Florida, at 561-556-1698 today, or book your visit online any time.