{"id":1056,"date":"2019-10-28T12:40:20","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T12:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?p=1056"},"modified":"2019-10-28T12:40:20","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T12:40:20","slug":"bridge-vs-implant-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/bridge-vs-implant-2\/","title":{"rendered":"BRIDGE VS. IMPLANT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Over the past\nfew weeks I have had numerous new and existing patients who have had the need\nto replace single and multiple teeth. Based on the conversations I have had\nwith these patients, there seems to be some common misconceptions about\nreplacing teeth. I would like to share my thought process that I communicate\nwith patients when they are forced to decide between different treatment options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me start\nby using an example of a new patient I had in yesterday. The patient presented\nwith the chief complaint of pain. The diagnosis was an infection of a\npreviously root canal treated tooth which was deemed non-restorable. The only\ntreatment was extraction. The teeth adjacent to this tooth are in good\ncondition. There are four treatment options: extract and leave the space,\nextract and replace missing tooth with a removable appliance (partial denture),\nextract and do a fixed, cemented bridge (non-removable), extract and replace\nmissing tooth with a dental implant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extracting the\nbad tooth and leaving the space is always an option. There are, of course,\nesthetic concerns as well as concerns about other teeth moving and loss of\nfunction. Replacing the missing tooth with a removable partial denture is an\noption, but is not one that most people choose, due to the fact that they have\nto wear something in their mouth. That leaves the last two options that most\npeople contemplate: a bridge vs. a dental implant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I started\npractice, the standard of care was to replace the missing tooth with a bridge.\nA bridge is a laboratory fabricated restoration where the teeth on either side\nof the missing tooth (abutments) are prepared for crowns. An impression is\ntaken of the prepared teeth, and the final product, a one-piece \u201c3-tooth\u201d\nporcelain bridge, is cemented onto the two teeth that were prepared. The\nadvantages of this are: typically can done quicker than an implant, and if the\nabutment teeth need crowns anyway, all is accomplished with that one procedure.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One major\ndisadvantage is that if you get decay on one of the abutment teeth, the entire\nbridge is typically lost. So, if you are prone to decay (especially if you do\nnot visit the dentist on a regular basis), a bridge is probably not the best\nsolution. Another disadvantage is that if the abutment teeth do not \u201cneed\u201d crowns,\na bridge requires perfectly good teeth to be ground-down. Because the bridge is\none piece, flossing requires a special tool to thread the floss under the\nbridge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I would\nconsider a dental implant to be the standard of care. A dental implant is a\ntitanium \u201cpost\u201d that replaces the root of the missing tooth. A single crown is\nthen placed on that \u201cpost\u201d. The procedure is typically less invasive than\nremoval of a tooth. You cannot get decay on a dental implant. If something goes\nwrong with one of the teeth on either side of the dental implant, you only have\nto deal with the one tooth and not three teeth as in the example of the bridge.\nThe teeth are all separate so flossing is normal. The cost of a single dental\nimplant vs. a 3-unit bridge is in the same ballpark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are\nother things to consider. I encourage your questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. St. Clair maintains\na private dental practice in Rowley and Newburyport dedicated to health-centered\nfamily dentistry. If there are certain topics you would like to see written about\nor questions you have please email them to him at jpstclair@stclairdmd.com<\/a>.\nYou can view all previously written columns at www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past few weeks I have had numerous new and existing patients who have had the need to replace single and multiple teeth. Based on the conversations I have had with these patients, there seems to be some common misconceptions about replacing teeth. I would like to share my thought process that I communicate with patients when they are forced to decide between different treatment options. Let me start by using an example of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1056"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1062,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions\/1062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}