No one expects to break their teeth or, worse, to lose some of them. Yet, accidents happen every day, leaving people with chipped, cracked, and missing teeth.
To be fair, sometimes the harm caused to teeth isn’t an accident. Tooth decay and gum disease take time to develop.
However, our focus at Newingham Dental Center is not judging anyone about the condition of their teeth. Instead, we want to help you repair your smile and restore your biting and chewing ability. For many people, the best way to accomplish this is with a dental crown or bridge.
If you could use one, schedule a consultation at our Birmingham, MI dental office. Call 248-972-8720 today to get started on your new smile.
Fix Your Smile Sooner with CEREC
Getting a dental crown has never been easier than it is today. Someone with a tooth that is broken, cracked, decayed, or discolored can get a crown in a single visit to our office.
After making a digital scan of your teeth, your crown is designed with the help of computer software. That design is programmed into our CEREC milling machine. This will turn a cubic of ceramic to shape into your crown.
In a matter of a few hours, your tooth can look as good or better than it ever has.
Without going into all the details, this is much faster than the old way of getting crowns. That involved placing an order with a dental lab and waiting for several days or even weeks before a crown was ready. That also meant you would have to make a second trip to the dentist’s office to fix your smile.
Getting a crown can restore your confidence in your smile, and it will allow you to eat comfortably and naturally again. With proper care, your CEREC crown can last for decades.
Don’t Lose Your Smile
Losing a tooth can be difficult for a number of reasons.
Physically, losing a tooth can make it more difficult to bite or chew. You may compensate by eating with the other side of your mouth, putting added wear and tear on those teeth.
The gap in your smile also can affect how you speak. People often overlook how our teeth help up pronounce certain words … until one or more of those teeth is gone.
Having a gap in your smile also can put your remaining healthy teeth at risk. A common issue with missing teeth is “drifting.” Normally, your teeth provide mutual support for one another. This keeps them in the same position despite the forces created by biting and chewing.
When a gap exists in your mouth, your teeth can shift positions. This can change your bite even more along with the appearance of your smile.
Below the gumline, another problem is bone loss. Without a tooth, you don’t have a root to stimulate your jawbone. Your jaw responds to that stimulation by making new bone tissue, which is what keeps your jaw healthy and strong.
In as little as 12 months, you could lose up to 25 percent of the bone density in the part of your mouth without a tooth.
Fill The Gap
A dental bridge or an implant-supported crown can fill the empty space created by your missing tooth.
This kind of bridge is built by combining crowns together. (And we can make your bridge in one day as well with our CEREC technology.)
Traditionally, three crowns are added together to replace a single tooth. To support the bridge, the teeth on either side of your gap are reshaped so the outside crowns of the bridge can be bonded to them. The middle crown fills the space in your smile.
This is effective at stopping drifting, but it does leave the potential for bone loss since the middle crown does not have root or root replacement underneath it. An implant-supported crown solves that issue.
Dental implants were developed to take the place of missing roots. They are placed directly into your jawbone. When your implant is securely in place, we can attach a dental crown to give you a complete tooth replacement.
This is strong, stable, and sturdy. It will support your natural teeth to prevent drifting, and it does not require reshaping health teeth to replace a tooth that’s missing.
With the implant underneath it, your artificial tooth will encourage new bone growth just like your old tooth once did.
Replace Multiple Teeth
If you are missing two or more teeth, a bridge is your best solution. You will also be happy to know that we can place multiple implants to support this bridge.
You could get a traditional bridge for these situations, but that will involve reshaping even more of your teeth to provide enough support for that bridge. At the same time, that leaves a bigger area of your jaw without anything to stimulate new bone growth.
By getting an implant-supported bridge, you have replacement teeth that look natural, feel stable and restore the force of real teeth to your bite.
Preserve Your Healthy Smile
It would be wonderful if no one ever damaged a tooth or lost any teeth. You can take steps to reduce your risk of those issues by doing a few simple things:
- Brush your teeth twice daily
- Floss between your teeth and gum every day
- Get professional dental cleanings and exams
- Wear athletic mouthguards while playing sports
The last two items on that list are services we are happy to provide as part of our family dentistry in Birmingham, MI.
Schedule A Visit Soon
We certainly hope that all of your teeth are healthy and intact. If they are, be sure to schedule your next dental checkup with us.
If they aren’t, our team at Newingham Dental Center is more than ready, willing, and able to help. You can get a dental crown or bridge (along with implants, if needed). Just call 248-972-8720 or contact us online to request an appointment.
Either way, we look forward to seeing you soon.
