Dental Bridges

Bridges replace missing teeth by placing crowns as anchors on the teeth on either side of the gap. The replacement teeth are connected to those anchor crowns so that they span across — or bridge — the space.

A bridge is fixed in place. You do not remove it, and it does not move when you eat or speak.

When a bridge makes sense

A bridge is a good option when the teeth on either side of the gap would benefit from crowns anyway — because they are already heavily filled, cracked, or worn. In that case the bridge does two jobs at once, and nothing healthy is sacrificed.

It is also the right choice for patients who are not candidates for implant surgery, or who would prefer to avoid it.

Bridge or implant?

If the teeth on either side of the gap are healthy and untouched, an implant is usually the better long-term option. A bridge requires those two teeth to be prepared for crowns, which means removing sound enamel from teeth that did not need treatment. An implant replaces the missing tooth on its own and leaves its neighbors alone.

The trade-offs are honest ones. A bridge is completed in a few weeks; an implant takes months of healing. A bridge involves no surgery. We will lay out both for your specific situation, including cost and how each is likely to be covered by your insurance, and you decide.

Why replacing the tooth matters

A gap is not stable. The teeth on either side drift toward it, the tooth above or below over-erupts into the space, and the bite gradually changes in ways that are harder and more expensive to correct later. Chewing load shifts onto fewer teeth, and those teeth wear and crack sooner.

Caring for a bridge

The bridge is cleaned like natural teeth on the outside, but the underside of the span needs deliberate attention — a floss threader or an interdental brush passed underneath it daily. Decay at the margins of the anchor crowns is the main reason bridges eventually fail, and it is preventable.