Say goodbye to the gap

Say goodbye to the gap

03/10/2018

Gaps in your teeth are alright if you are starring as the Artful Dodger or Bill Sykes in your local am-dram production of Oliver! but if you are not a 19th century Dickens slum character, but a decent sort from Burnham, then gaps are not going to help your look.

Choosing how to fill the gap can be a big decision that follows a long process of weighing up the pros and cons of the various ways you can replace lost teeth in 21st century Burnham. If you come to The Dental Surgery Burnham, our knowledgeable dentists can help you choose between the 3 different solutions to missing teeth.

Dentures

Full dentures replace all the teeth on an arch, partial dentures replace some of them. Dentures are crowns attached to a plate that sits on the gums if you have lost all your teeth, or just behind them if you have lost just some of them. Dentures last for a few years and then have to be replaced. They can be made to look just like your existing or lost teeth, so from the point of view of looks no one need know they are not yours. The biggest downside to dentures is that they just don’t have the chewing power of natural teeth, and bits of food can get stuck under them.

Bridges

These are replacement teeth that are suspended or sit on a bridge that runs between 2 buttresses. They replace a one, two or a few teeth in a row. The buttresses are crowns that go over the teeth at either end of the gap and piggy back on their roots for stability. This means that bridges provide good chewing power, but it also means that you lose 2 perfectly good teeth to support the bridge because they have to be ground down to have the crowns put on.

Dental implants

These are titanium posts that are embedded into the jawbone to replace the root of the tooth. Each implant can support up to 3 teeth on a bridge and 4-6 of them can support an entire arch. They can also be used to stabilise dentures. They are long lasting and easy to maintain.