If you are missing a single tooth, one implant and a crown can replace it. A dental implant replaces both the lost natural tooth and its root.
What are the advantages of a single-tooth implant over a bridge?
A dental implant provides several advantages over other tooth replacement options. In addition to looking and functioning like a natural tooth, a dental implant replaces a single tooth without sacrificing the health of neighboring teeth. The other common treatment for the loss of a single tooth, a tooth-supported fixed bridge, requires that adjacent teeth be ground down to support the cemented bridge.
Because a dental implant will replace your tooth root, the bone is better preserved. With a bridge, some of the bone that previously surrounded the tooth begins to resorb (deteriorate). Dental implants integrate with your jawbone, helping to keep the bone healthy and intact.
As prosthodontists who have performed and monitored both dental bridges and dental implants for many years in our practice, we can say with certainty that a single tooth dental implant would last longer than a dental bridge. The number one problem that we see with cemented bridges is cavities forming under the bridge of the supporting roots because of the difficulty to clean around the bridge. In the long term, a single implant is easier to keep clean than a bridge and does not harm the adjacent teeth.
If a person is not a candidate for implants or does not wish to go through surgery, cemented bridges are the next best option for replacing teeth. As prosthodontists who have a higher degree of planning and performing dental bridges, and if the patient adequately cleans around the cemented bridges, these dental prosthetics can last a very long time.
Please give us a call at 360-459-4400 to see if you are right for a dental implant or cemented bridge to replace a missing or soon-to-be missing tooth.