Tooth Replacement: What Is My Best Option?

Why is a dental implant often preferable to a bridge?

The purpose of a dental implant, as well as the purpose of a bridge, is to replace one or more missing teeth. With a bridge, the teeth on either side of the space must be ground down, so we have to sacrifice healthy tooth structure to contain the bridge. Also, with a bridge, there’s nothing there to stimulate the bone in the area where the teeth were lost, so that bone will continue to resorb away. This can be a cosmetic issue if the bridge is in the front of the mouth, and it usually becomes a maintenance issue for patients cleaning their mouths. Also when a bridge is placed, it’s one unit, so in the future, if one of the supporting teeth has a problem and needs to be addressed, usually the whole bridge has to be sacrificed.

Unlike a bridge, a dental implant only replaces what’s missing – the missing tooth or teeth. It doesn’t involve the adjacent teeth. We don’t have to cut down those teeth. The nice thing about the dental implant is that it acts like the root and bone, so it continues to stimulate the bone to stay in that area, and because it’s not attached to the adjacent teeth, it doesn’t alter the way you clean your teeth. Sometimes, people get the impression that the dental implant procedure is very aggressive, but it’s actually a very gentle procedure.

The implant is placed gently into the bone and allowed to heal. After the implant is placed, most patients can go to work. It’s a procedure that is very kind to the mouth. Once the implant is restored with a crown, the implant bonds and fuses to the bone, so it becomes very secure. The crown is securely attached to it in a very predictable procedure.