Fixed Teeth Replacement

This is the art of replacing missing natural teeth with artificial teeth, which are just as functional and esthetical as your natural teeth. With recent developments in dentistry, a number of alternatives are available to replace missing teeth, ranging from traditional dentures to crowns and bridges and even dental implants. It is essential to restore lost teeth as early as possible with something that closely resembles your teeth.

Why is it important to replace lost teeth?

Chewing and general health can be affected.
The appearance of the front teeth and the smile can deteriorate.

Teeth adjacent to spaces may drift and tilt into them.

Teeth in the opposite jaw, over the space, can grow longer because there is no opposite tooth to bite against, and keep it in place.

The bite can be affected, and the front teeth can be forced forward.

Dental Crowns

1. A dental crown is a tooth cap placed to cover the tooth to restore its shape, its size and its strength.

2. Protect a weak tooth (for instance, from decay) from breaking especially after an RCT

3. The tooth to be crowned is prepared (i.e. reduction of the tooth size) followed by an impression of the tooth, being obtained. This reduction of the tooth is required to build room for the crown to be fixed. The impression taken is then sent to a laboratory where expert technicians will fabricate the crown. In the meanwhile, a temporary crown is made and fixed on top of the reduced tooth.

4. Crowns can be made of porcelain, gold metal or newer restorative materials like metal-free ceramics.

Types of dental crowns

All Ceramic– These crowns are best esthetically and have the advantage of being ‘metal free’. This is a big advantage even for subsequent scan in the face and head region since it does not produce ‘scatter’ during CT scans.

Ceramic fused to Metal– They merge the strength of the metal along with the esthetics of porcelain. Although the porcelain is somewhat more prone to chipping, they are still tough. They are the most commonly used crowns now.

Metal free Restorations– We at Dr Shweta’s Dental Clinic do all types of crowns. High quality all ceramic crowns are made both with Cercon & Procera.

All Metal– This includes gold alloy and other base metal alloys. Metal crowns are the toughest. They rarely break or chip and can resist daily wear and tear. The only disadvantage is that they look like metal and not a natural tooth.

Dental Bridges

1. A dental bridge restores missing teeth by "bridging" the space between two existing teeth. The crowns are fixed over the remaining teeth to hold the false tooth in place.

2. When teeth are only on one side of the space, cantilever bridges can be given. Cantilever bridge consists of two or more side-by-side crowns and only one is fixed over the prepared natural teeth.

3. To design a bridge, the reshaping of the abutment tooth or teeth is done to make space for the crowns. Then the mold of the teeth is made. This mold is then sent to a laboratory, where the crowns and bridge are made.

4. They prevent the nearby teeth from moving or shifting in the oral cavity and also stabilize the bite of a patient with missing one or more teeth.

5. Unlike partial dentures, bridges are fixed; patients need not remove them. The lost tooth is replaced with an artificial one attached between two crowns, and is permanently cemented onto the adjacent teeth.